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Malcolo off with soer who offers you candy!" he announced loudly "Reer,"Felicia AnnMalcolm

"Oh dear," Keiko said "That's scary"

Mrs Pidgeon stood up "That's a good re of I'et the hang of it

"The moral of the panda fable is this:So"

The children were silent for a et it!" Ben said "Like when I got new hockey skates, but my old ones were really ot his new car?" Chelsea added "He said he really liked the old one better even though it had a hundred million miles on it!"

"And my mom and dad!" Malcolm called "They already had me! I was already their kid! They'd had eon went to Malcolm and put her hand on his shoulder At the same time she reached with her other hand to Nicholas, and rubbed his back in a co way Nicholas didn't look up

"Gooney Bird," Mrs Pidgeon said, "we have a lot of fables to get through How about calling on the next person?"

Gooney Bird nodded, and looked around the room

"Keiko?" she said "You next"

4

Keiko stood She reached under her desk, picked up a pink canvas backpack, and put her arh the straps But she did it backwards, so that the pack was suspended against her chest Then she walked to the front of the classrooet it!" they called out

Keiko went to the board, and under PANDA, in her best uppercase printing, she wrote:

KANGAROO

Then she turned to the class, unfolded her paper, and announced, "My fable is called--"

She interrupted herself and looked over at Mrs Pidgeon and at Gooney Bird, as standing beside the teacher's desk "Are we supposed to have a title?" she asked

"Oh, yes," Gooney Bird said "All stories have titles"

"But Mrs Pidgeon's fable didn't have a title!" Chelsea called

"Uh-oh," said Mrs Pidgeon "I forgot And Gooney Bird is right; all stories should have titles See? Not even teachers are perfect!"

The second-graders, all but Nicholas, laughed

"Of course, they are aleon added, and the class, all but Nicholas, laughed again

"The title of eon said, "was, ah, 'The Panda in the Bamboo Grove' But now it's Keiko's turn Go on, Keiko"

Keiko nodded and began again "The title of aroo Who Caaroo hopped out of his mother's pouch and went off to play

He played with a koala and a dingo and a wallaby They played tag and hide-and-seek

Then it got late It was tioodbye to each other and started for their hoaroo could not find his ho His h the scratchy grass He could not see her anyan to cry

The koala said, "Come with me to my eucalyptus tree You can share ht"

So the kangaroo ith the koala But he couldn't clis It was very uncomfortable, and he did not like the taste of eucalyptus at

all

So he cried again

The dingo said, "Come with me I live in a small cave in those rocks over there You can share aroo tried that But the dingo was eating rabbit for dinner, and the kangaroo was a vegetarian He couldn't eat rabbit And the cave was cold, not comfy and warain

The wallaby said, "Well, I can take you to where I live As you know, I aaroo myself, so I eat leaves and roots the way you do But I'm afraid there is no room in my round, and it will not be cozy"

The little kangaroo cried and cried

Suddenly he heard a thu with her strong legs and big feet toward hi everywhere

He hopped to her and right into her pouch, which ar for hiently and he proain, at least not until he was big

Then he went happily to sleep

"That's the end," Keiko said "Did you like it?"

The second-graders clapped They had liked her fable very much

"It was a happy suddenly, when he heard his ," Beanie pointed out, "not a scary one"

"Yes," Keiko said "I wouldn't put in anything scary"

"Happy suddenlys are just fine," Gooney Bird told the students "I think I may put one into my fable, actually Thank you for that idea, Keiko"

She looked around "Now," she said, "thinking caps! Who would like to tell us what the moral is? What kind of behavior are we supposed to learn from Keiko's fable?"