哈维先生的两个儿子托马斯和约翰非常希望他们的表弟塞缪尔·里德能与他们一起度过八月的假期。这两个孩子自元旦以来就没有见过面，哈维先生说他们可以去看一个病得很重的老人，他不能工作。这个老人叫霍尔，学校的孩子们都叫他霍尔爸爸。他曾经很富有，但疾病和不幸使他陷入贫困，所以他现在和他的小儿子住在一个小山附近的小屋里。
Mr. Harvey's two sons Thomas and John were very anxious for their cousin Samuel Reed to spend the August holidays with them. The boys had not seen each other since New Year's Day, and Mr. Harvey said that they might go to see an old man who was so sickly that he could not work. This old man's name was Hall, and the boys of the school called him Daddy Hall. He had once been rich; but sickness and misfortune had reduced him to poverty, so that he now lived with his little son, in a small hut, near a hill.
