Katie and the Christmas Chimney

Hello, this is Natasha and I'm here with a Christmas story about one of the most popular characters on Story Norie.

Katie the Ordinary Witch

In history lessons, Katie and her class were studying the time of Queen Victoria,

who reigned over Great Britain from 1837 to 1901.

It was an amazing period when engineers built tunnels, bridges and railways,

and explorers tracked through the jungles, and writers turned out

some of the best novels and poems ever. But Katie's history teacher, Mr. Old, only seemed

interested in all the bad stuff. For homework, everyone had to prepare a project on how terrible it had been to be

a child born into Victorian times. Katie researched Victorian schools. It seemed that

education in those days meant one thing, suffering. The teachers of days gone by made Miss Vile seem like a pussycat.

They revelled in beating children with thin canes and making them kneel for hours on a stone

floor.

The only good thing you could say about going to school in 1800s was that it was better than the alternatives,

which if you came from a poor family could be pretty gruesome. For example, some children,

as young as six, worked as chimney sweeps. Their lives were so terrible that Katie's

best friend Isis was close to tears when she presented her findings on them to her class.

She explained how small children had to climb up chimneys scraping their hands and knees,

getting covered in soot and always at risk of getting stuck there.

Sometimes if they were too slow, the master sweep would light a fire to hurry them up.

When Isis had finished relating all this, Mr. Old gave everyone a chance to ask questions.

Samantha put up her hand and said,

...