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"But first," Malcolthe way, the second-graders walked back to the classroo not toHis antlers were a little tilted

11

When the class was settled at their desks and Gooney Bird had announced that it was his turn to present his fable, Malcolm picked up a thick red marker and colored his own nose

"A clown?" Keiko mur to his belt, twisting it around to the back The children all watched, puzzled

He walked to the front of the rooan to write on the board The children were all still puzzled by the costuht red nose and the sheet of purple construction paper dangling from his belt in the rear

"Why is your nose red?" called Tricia

"Why is your backside all purple?" asked Ben

"Shhhh!" Mrs Pidgeon said, holding up her quiet-please finger "Let's see Malcolm's animal, and then maybe we'll understand his costume"

Carefully Malcolm wrote an uppercase M Then an A Then an N

"NO FAIR!" Tyrone called "He can't be a man!"

"You have to be an aniht I was Thoht, Mrs Pidgeon? Isn't that right, Gooney Bird?"

Malcol iraders

"Well," Gooney Bird said, "a man is a mammal Maybe a fable can be about any mammal"

"But o ith a bird"

"Neither was mine!" Tricia announced "I was a tortoise That's not a ht" Gooney Bird looked as if she were thinking "I don't know if there is a rule about fables If we can have a bird, or a tortoise, or a T rex, as the main character, maybe we could have a eon said

"And anyhat's that purple thing on your backside, Malcolm?" Chelsea asked "It's weird So is your nose"

Malcolled his bottorew quiet, he turned and added some more letters on the board

DRILL

He turned back to the class, wiggled his bottoain, then lifted one arm and scratched with the other "Oooh, oooh, oooh," Malcol sound

"Mandrill!" Gooney Bird announced "Malcol like a chi about, his legs bent, stillthe sound

"A mandrill is a kind of monkey, sort of," Gooney Bird explained "Like a baboon, I think I've seen them at the zoo They're the ones with red noses and--"

"Oh, no!" Keiko squealed "The ones with the yucky bright blue and pink bottoms! I hate those!" Shearound He announced his fable's title

The Mandrill and Its Young

Once there was a feot very fat Then one day her baby was born It was pretty cute She liked it

But then, suddenly, she had

another

baby

And then, suddenly,

another

Well That was pretty surprising Now she had three mandrill babies They were very noisy They wanted to be fed every s and broke things

The father mandrill was never home Sometimes the mother was so nervous and tired that she screa was, the mother mandrill didn't have any time to take care of her older et rid of a couple of these babies," she said "Maybe I can sell thele, but no one wanted to buy a baby ive theht

But no one wanted those babies, even as a gift

She couldn't figure out what to do She sat on the jungle floor, thinking

Suddenly one of the babies smiled at her

Then the next one did

And then the third All three babyfor the first time

"Hey, look!" the mother said to her older , because he hated the babies But he came dohen his mom called

He looked at the shed

Another one puckered up its mouth and blew him a kiss

The third one clian to sleep very quietly

The older un to like the babies

"Let's keep them," he said to his mother "They're cute"

So they did After that, when the babies cried, the mother mandrill and her older mandrill child just covered their ears They kneouldn't last

"Oh, I love that fable," Keiko said with a sigh "It was so sweet"

"Yeth," said Felicia Ann "Tho thweet"

"Did the babies have purple buuess so," he said "They were mandrills"

Gooney Bird went to the front of the class "There is nothing whatsoever wrong with a purple botto part of my hair purple sometime

"Thank you for your fable, Malcolm Do you want to tell us the et better"

"They do indeed," Mrs Pidgeon said, s better at your house, Malcolm"