Page 4 (1/2)

Gooney Bird took the paper from Beanie and looked at it carefully "You knohat?" she said "I don't think that was the end"

"It isn't?" Beanie said

"You just stopped too soon," Gooney Bird pointed out

"What if, after this last sentence--'the little cub was always skinny and scared'--you then added a suddenly?"

"But what could it say after that?" Beanie asked

"Class?" Gooney Bird turned to the second-graders, ere all listening and thinking "Ideas?"

Malcol cub was killed by a lion and the little one got to eat all his food! This big lion comes and kills him, see! How about if a lion--"

"Oh, no!"wailed Keiko

"Other ideas?" Gooney Bird asked

"I have one," said Felicia Ann timidly

"Remember, it should start with a suddenly," Gooney Bird reminded her

Felicia Ann nodded "Thuddenly," she said, "the big cub got thtuck in a bear trap! He wath too fat to get out!"

"And then what?"

"Well, hith little brother ca and wath able to reach in and help him, becuth he wath thkinny! He unlocked the trap and let hith brother out!"

"YES!" called Tyrone" Caught in a trap cuzyou acted like a sap, and along coo--"

"Tyrone," said Mrs Pidgeon, with a ful look

"Sorry," Tyrone said

"What do you think of Felicia Ann's suggestion?" Gooney Bird asked Beanie

Beanie nodded happily "I like it! And it has a moral!" she said

"What's the moral?"

"Be nice to your brother!" Malcolm called out "Always share with your brother! Your brother is--"

Mrs Pidgeon put her hand firmly on Malcolm's shoulder "Let Beanie answer," she said

"Well," Beanie said slowly"Everybody has things they can do You don't have to be big or brave The iood to me!" Gooney Bird said "Class? What do you think?"

"Sounds good!" the class said

"The bear didn't die in the trap, did he?" Keiko asked fearfully

"No," Beanie said "He caot some fish and other stuff for his brother, to say thank you

"The end," Beanie added

6

Felicia Ann went next

"My fable ith very, very short," she said apologetically when she went to the front of the class

"That's all right," Gooney Bird told her

You'll thee why," Felicia Ann said

She earing a bright pink dress and hts She went to the board Carefully she printed, under BEAR, the word FLAMINGO

Then Felicia Ann turned to the class and unfolded her paper They could all see the very short sentences printed neatly on it

"The title ith 'The Fable of the Flao,'" Felicia Ann read aloud

Oneth there wath a flaht pink

But itth legs were pink, too And that th should be brown, like other birds' legth

Tho it tried to hide the up to itth tummy in a folded way tho that no one would thee it

But thuddenly, when it pulled the other leg up, it fell over

Tho it only hid one leg at a ti

The end

Everyone noticed that Felicia Ann obbling a bit She had read her fable standing on one leg, with the other leg tucked up as high as possible

After she read, "The end," she sighed with relief and put her leg down

"I almotht tipped over," she said, "tho it had to be short"

"It was a good fable, though," Gooney Bird told her "Class? Didn't you think so?"

The other second-graders, all but Nicholas, as scribbling aimlessly on a piece of paper, nodded

"And the uess, or would you like to tell us?"

"I'll tell the moral," Felicia Ann said shyly "It'th thith:You should be very proud of what color you are"

The class cheered and clapped

"Even your legth,"Felicia Ann added She grinned Then she went back to her desk

Mrs Pidgeon stood up "Class," she said, "we have time for just one more fable before lunch, and then we'll do some more tomorrow