Mr. Severances is deeply thinking about his servant-problem. Sided, a homeless poor boy, comes to his gate just then in search of a job. Severances looks at him and finds nothing objectionable. Yet he asks a few questions about his previous work. He calls then his wife who turns satisfied after meeting the boy. Ella, their five-year old daughter comes out and likes the boy. Sided is selected on an agreement of two meals a day and four rupees a month.
In return he is to wash loathes, tend the garden, run errands, chop wood and kick after Ella. Sided is a likeable boy who gets on well with the family. He becomes a good friend with Ella. Sided and Ella play together With a ball. Sided throws the ball upward. When the ball comes down, he tells her that the ball has touched the moon. Even he has touched the moon many times from a coconut tree. The innocent girl believes every word of Sided. She also expresses her desire to touch the moon.
She is surprised to see that wherever they move, the moon is there. She claps in joy. Sided informs her that he really knows the moon which follows up his command. At days end Ella plays the teacher to Sided. She tries to teach him with her little knowledge. She writes a letter or draws a kind of cat or crow, and asks him to copy it. But he is a very poor performer. Yet Ella does not give up her effort, She does not allow him to leave his task, The game of teaching goes on for a long time.
Sided gets relief only when he falsely tells her that her mother s calling her to dinner, Every night Sided tells a nice story to put Ella to sleep. Day by day he becomes her constant companion. A sweetening relationship is established between them. One evening Sided goes out to buy sugar and Ella accompanies him. When they come home, Allele’s mother noticed that the gold chain around Allele’s neck is missing& Being furious she slaps Ella and calls Sided at once on suspicion. Sided defends himself feebly but leaves the house stealthily.
