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"Nicholas?" she asked "Would you like to be the final fable today?"
But Nicholas, looking eon said, "I can see that three of you--Chelsea, Malcoler to have a turn I wish you'd raise your hands with thatmath!
"Let's see What do you think, Gooney Bird?"
"Well," Gooney Bird said, looking at the list on the board, "we've had three girls already today So we should give a boy a turn"
Chelsea groaned and stopped waving her hand
"And," Gooney Bird went on, "we've all been sitting and we probably could use the exercise So let's let Tyrone do his And let's all stand up for it
"You too, Nicholas," Gooney Bird added, after the class had stood up but Nicholas was still sluly, Nicholas stood
With a grin Tyrone made his way to the front of the room He carried no paper, but he had a shiny pie tin in his hand, and when he reached the front of the roo attached to it in two places, around his neck
"My fable is--" he began, his sneakers already tapping on the floor
"Write your anirinned and moved his feet
"Go ahead and yell it but I dunno how to spell it,"he chanted, "can't write it on the list cuz ht be dissed, so I tell the story 'bout it and if you wanna you can shout it"
The whole class began to tap their feet and hu with Tyrone Even Nicholas looked up with interest
The Tale of Tyrannosaurus Rex
You got it, it be TEEEE REX, TEEEE REX--okay for you to shout it cuz there ain't no way about it--this creature, he co
Tyrone twirled around and ca on his chest
he got arhts cuz everybody scared to fight hiets no fleas, and he don't say thank you and he don't say please, cuz he rule the earth since his ive him birth
"Lemme hear it!" Tyrone said, and the class, accustoive hiive him birth"
There was a brief knock at the classroom door It opened, and Mr Leroy, the principal, appeared He earing a tie that had candy canes on it, and soe sounds fro, "and I suspected that the fa May I sit in?"
He tiptoed over and sat down at Tyrone's e at a child's deskup, but he never seemed to mind
"It's a fable," Tricia whispered to hi a fable"
Tyrone continued
Mr Leroy don't be bitter, gonna hear about this critter, Teeee rex, Teeee rex
"Teeee rex, Teeee rex," the class chanted Mrs Pidgeon and Mr Leroy joined in
He be one huge dude, every minute needin' food, and he's choreen
Tyrone danced across the open space at the front of the roo a large ani "Leeon, and Mr Leroy all chanted with hireen!"
Then Tyrone stopped dancing, stood still, and lowered his voice to finish his fable
Big T rex, he rule the earth and he rule the moon, but he be in trouble really soon, cuz one fine day as quick as a wink, he go to wake up and he now extinct
EXXXXXTINCT!
Tyrone bohile the class clapped and cheered, as they always did for Tyrone's perfor, said, "Great as always, Tyrone But haven't you forgotten so? What does a fable always have?"
"Gettin' to that," Tyrone explained He turned to the class "Wanna hear a moral?"
They nodded
"I can't hear you!" Tyrone called "Wanna hear a moral?"
"Wanna hear a moral!" the class chanted
"Louder!"
"WANNA HEAR A MORAL!"
Tyrone resumed his position, tapped his feet, and finished his rap
Big be nice, and big be cool, but big don't onna rule, cuz here's the moral of ole T rex:
BIG MEAN NUTHIN' IF YOU DON'T DO SCHOOL!
"School! School!" the class repeated, chanting and clapping
"Well," said Mr Leroy as he unfolded his long legs and stood up, "thank you, Tyrone That made my day
"Madetoward the door "Mademean nuthin' if you don't do school "He disappeared, still chanting, into the hall
Mrs Pidgeon went to the board and wrote TYRANNOSAURUS REX below FLAMINGO "Now: lunchtime, class," she said with a seon?" Tricia asked the teacher at lunch Soether at a separate table, or even ate their lunch in the teachers' roo with the children She had even iven Gooney Bird a nice red apple in exchange for the five olives-stuffed-with-anchovy that Gooney Bird had brought as an hors d'oeuvre
"I think lunch ought to have courses," Gooney Bird always said "I like to have an appetizer--sometimes I call it the hors d'oeuvre--and a salad, and an entrée, and a dessert course I'd do a soup course, too, but every time I've tried it, my soup has spilled before lunchtiets wet"
Today Gooney Bird, to everyone's a made of embroidered cloth out of her lunchbox She unfolded it carefully and tied it around her neck
"That's a bib!" Malcolm bellowed "That's what babies wear! Babies wear bibs!"
"I know that," Gooney Bird replied calht this one in the baby section of the Goodwill store"
"But ould you wear a baby thing?" Beanie asked
"It's sensible," Gooney Bird replied "Babies wear bibs to keep their clothes clean That's a sensible thing to do I am a sensible person So I have decided to wear a bib" She smoothed the bib over her chest It had an embroidered duck on it
"But aren't you embarrathed?" Felicia Ann whispered
"I am never ever embarrassed," Gooney Bird replied
Everyone was silent for a moment Then Malcolm said, "We have a whole lot of bibs at home A million bibs We have--"