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"Tricia?" Gooney Bird pointed to Tricia

"Be a vegetarian!" Tricia said "That's the etarian!" Barry called out "My dad says she's a nutcase!"

"My etarian!" shouted Chelsea "And my mom says yeah, eat your du!"

Mrs Pidgeon stood up "Class," she said, " with that But I don't think that was the moral of the fable, was it, Keiko?"

Keiko shook her head "No And anyway, I like hot dogs"

"I have a feeling," Mrs Pidgeon said, "that thethat we all remember from a certain movie A movie that had a scarecrow and a tin man in it"

"The Withard of Oth,"whispered Felicia Ann

"I know!" Malcoloing to call first on Nicholas, I think," Mrs Pidgeon said

Nicholas looked up He frowned But he gave the answer" There's no place like home, "he said

"Correct! And you knohat?" Gooney Bird said "In the movie, Dorothy says it three tiive the answer!"

"Go, Malcolm!" shouted Tyrone

"There's no place like home! There's no place like home! There's no place like ho sed to a scowl, and he added, "Unless the home has triplets"

5

Beanie went to the front of the classroom to present her fable next First she reached into her backpack and took out a small stuffed bear

"This isn't really a costu it But ht ot him when I was born His na, to have a teddy bear when you're in second grade!" Barry said

The class fell silent Beanie looked eeon said, and she stood up "When I was a very little girl, I had a stuffed lamb I used to sleep with him His name was Fleecy And you knohat?"

"What?" the class asked

"I still have him I don't sleep with him anymore But Fleecy sits on a shelf in my bedroom, and I still love hio"

"I have a bear," Tricia said "I call mine Bear-Bear"

"Tho do I," Felicia Ann whispered "I thleep with my bear"

"I have a doll," Keiko said "Not a bear A soft doll with a painted face, and she is so old that her face is almost worn away, but I still love her just as much"

"I have a bunny," Ben said "When I was born everybody gave me bunnies because of the story of Benjaht bunnies when I was born I only have one left, but I sleep with hiot Bunny, I couldn't sleep"

Tyrone stood up "Mine's a clown," he said "My Nana made it Got h as an to rap with Tyrone" Got hing "You'll get your turn, Tyrone, when you present your fable But for noant to hear Beanie's And also, Barry?"

"What?"

"It isn't a baby thing at all, to have a bear Or a laize to Beanie"

"Sorry, Beanie," Barry said

"That's okay" Still holding Teddy, Beanie turned and wrote BEAR on the list, just below KANGAROO Then she unfolded her paper and read the title of her fable

The Very Small Bear

Barry interrupted her "Actually," Barry adross because I suck on theer to her ood listeners"

Once there was abear cub, and very brave But the other was quite ss

When they went to the river so their ht in and splashed around He grabbed a salmon with his claws But the little cub was afraid of the water, and he cried "It's cold!" he said "And I can't swi cub er cub said, and grabbed another fish for himself

When their mom took them to the orchard where so cub jurabbed apples and ate theulp

But the little cub only peeked out fro place behind the corner of the barn "What if the farun and

shoots

us?" It made him shake with fear just to think about it

"Scaredy-cat!" said the big cub to his brother, and he stuffed another apple into his own mouth

The mother bear took theet honey fro cub "Honey!" He cliht out his paw coated with sticky, delicious honey The bees buzzed around angrily but he didn't care

The little bear hid in the bushes and watched He was very scared of bees "What if they sting er and bigger and healthier and healthier, but the little cub was always skinny and scared

Beanie looked up "That's the end," she said "But it doesn't have a suddenly And I don't think it has a moral, either"