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"She's Mrs X!" said Beanie

Mrs Pidgeon laughed "Well, that's e all called her for a while when she was being uess who she was"

"I reht us cupcakes," Tricia said "She's very, very old"

"That's true," Mrs Pidgeon said "My mother is very, very old And she's not very well at thehos from her past, and I found all these poems that she had written I sit by her bed and read them to her She likes that Yesterday, when I read this haiku, I decided it would be a good one for our eon! I have a poehed "All right, Malcolm," she said

Malcolm stood He said in a loud voice:

HAIKU!

KUNG FU!

Heinto the air

When all of the boys began to arrange theeon quickly went to the piano and played a few soft chords It was her bestdown the entire class It alorked

When they were quiet and cal to describe the rules of haiku to you quickly, and then we o on to our math"

She wrote her mother's poem on the board:

Over the pavement

Snow falls in January--

Soap flakes wash our tracks

They all read it aloud together

"Okay," said Mrs Pidgeon "Three lines Five syllables in the first line"

They read the first line slowly so that they could hear the syllables Five

"Next line: seven," said Mrs Pidgeon

They read the second line and could hear that it was true Seven syllables

"Finally, five again, in the third line," she told them, and they read it aloud

"Usually, a haiku is about one of the seasons," she explained "This one, of course, is about winter It describes snow, in January What other seasons do we have?"

"Thu!"

"Correct And fall, or autumn So there we have the basic rules of haiku Later today we'll have tiht now"--she looked at the clock--"we really eon noticed that Gooney Bird Greene, who had been very quiet, had her hand raised "Yes, Gooney Bird?"

"I wrote one," Gooney Bird said "I know I should have been facing forward, hands folded, eyes on you, when you were talking But I couldn't help myself Sometimes you just can't help yourself" She held up a lined paper with soht, Gooney Bird, why don't you read it to the class? Then: , she adjusted the dahts Then she read, from her paper:

Haiku

by Gooney Bird Greene

Winter walk to school

Stiletto boots, icy street--

Toes and knees suffer

3

After the next eon went to the front of the class with a paper in her hand

"Is your eon looked sad "No," she said, "I'm afraid not When you're very old, as et better But yesterday after school, I went to see her and I read poeain Her own poems You know, at one time my mom was a very serious writer"

"Is that one of hers?" Barry asked, pointing to the paper Mrs Pidgeon nodded

"Another haiku?" asked Keiko

"No, this one is different I know sohone"

"I hope it's not long," said Malcoleon laughed "Anybody reraders "Barry? You'reYou're the rinned and nodded "It was 'Little Orphan Annie,' and the name of the author was James Whitcomb Reilly"

"Good for you! That's correct I read that one because it was about goblins and scary things, so it seeht, Malcol"

Gooney Bird raised her hand It e number of bracelets on that arm Gooney Bird liked jewelry a lot

"Sorry for the clank," she said "I' my bracelets off in a minute because they make it hard for loves?" asked Mrs Pidgeon "They don't interfere with your writing?" Gooney Bird was also wearing her fingerless gloves