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"Keiko?" Gooney Bird said

Keiko giggled and stood She had a bright green bow in her hair and a long shiny silk scarf wrapped around her neck

"Me?" called Chelsea "Can I stand up?" She did, and the class could see that she earing a fringed cowboy vest over her best dress

"Me! Me!" Everyone, all but Felicia Ann, was calling out now, but Gooney Bird said, "Later After the story I'in now"

She took one an

Beloved Catman Is Consuo, after they had left China, Gooney Bird and Cath the air on a carpet The carpet landed in a e brown and white coas contentedly eating wildflowers The floere purple loosestrife

The carpet unrolled, and Gooney Bird stood up and looked around She could see, in the distance, her father's car quickly disappearing down the road

Beside her, Catman also stood up He had becohtened

"My cat beco to visit," Mrs Pidgeon said Then she put her hand to her mouth "Oh! I'm sorry, Gooney Bird I interrupted"

"That's all right," Gooney Bird replied "Maybe this is a good ti-suddenly stories"

Many children did Barry Tuckerht out in the air when a groundhog appeared in the yard

Chelsea's cat became enorave her a shot

Tricia told how her cat got very, very fat and then one day had seven kittens inside the laundry basket

"Good So you all understand about cats Now I'll continue," Gooney Bird announced

The coho had so from her mouth, looked very surprised when a person and a cat and a carpet all landed in herto a different corner of theslowly in a cowlike fashion, she strolled away toward a corner where yellow cosmos and oxeye daisies were in bloom

Gooney Bird's attention was on the car, which had now disappeared around a bend in the road She was a little worried about the disappearance of the car

But Catman didn't care about the car Catman had never liked the car at all In fact, Catlad that it had disappeared

But he was very interested in the cow Catman had never seen a cow before Noatched with fascination as the cow moved slowly toward the other corner of the meadow

He liked the way the coalked, heavily and with determination

He liked the way the cow smelled, of thick, sun-warmed cowhide andbehind the cow and the cow noticed and , the low, throaty sound of aof flies

Catan to purr In the distance, he could hear Gooney Bird calling "Cat in love with the cow

"I like romance," Beanie said

"Me too," Keiko said with a tiny sigh

Gooney Bird waited aShe continued the story

In the evening, the farmer, Mr Henry Schinhofen, came to the meadow and called the cow It was time to take her into the barn to be milked

The cow liked the farmer, as soft-spoken and kind; and she liked the barn, which was airy and dark and sthat needs to be done now and then So she cheerfully followed the farmer when he called her

Catman cheerfully followed the cow

Mrs Clara Schinhofen, the far the chickens when her husband walked past, leading the cow "My word," she said "Look! There's a cat with no tail, following the cow!"

"So there is," said her husband "Perhaps he is hungry We should feed him"

They tried to take Catman into the house to be fed, but he refused to leave the cow So they brought hiave it to him in the barn When Mr Schinhofen milked the cow, he squirted soht, Catman, as by now completely and hopelessly in love, curled up beside the cow and slept He has slept there ever since During the day, he goes to the meadoith the cow, and while the cow eats wildflowers, Cat of flies, and smells the warm and pleasant odor of cowhide

Gooney Bird paused "Questions?" she said

Keiko raised her hand "I aiting for the bad part," she said "I was going to cover my ears"

"What bad part?" asked Gooney Bird

"You know," Keiko whispered "Where the cow ate Catman"

Gooney Bird looked surprised "The cow didn't eat Catman! The cow hardly notices that Catman is there! The cow eats wildflowers"

"But you said--" Keiko began

"Yes! You said--" Malcoleon stood up "Remember the title of the story, children," she said

They all tried "'How a Cow Ate Catman,'" Barry Tuckerman called out

"'How Catman Got Eaten Up by a Cow,'" Tricia said

Mrs Pidgeon shook her head She picked up her notebook "I wrote it down," she told them "'Beloved Catman Is Consuested She went on with the end of the story