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imagination.
    "But I'd add a little action to the story now," she said.
    Barry nodded and went on.
    One day when they were roaming and eating, roaming and eating, hunters with guns crept up on the herd.
    "Guns!" said Keiko, and covered her ears. "I don't want to hear any more!"
    "Blam!" shouted Malcolm, holding up his hand with his finger aimed like a gun. "Blam! Blam!" Mrs. Pidgeon went to Malcolm's desk and put her calm-down arm across his shoulders.
    "Maybe," Gooney Bird said to Barry, "some dialogue would be good now."
    Barry frowned. "Bison can't talk," he said.
    "In stories they can," Gooney Bird explained. "That's the good thing about stories. Anything can happen."
    "Hmmm," Barry said. He was thinking.
    Then he went on.
"Look!" called the young bison to his herd. "I see hunters coming!"
    "Oh, dear!" an older bison said. "If they shoot us, the magnificent bison herds of the western plains may become extinct!"
    "Yes," said another old bison, "once there were sixty million of us, but—"
    Barry paused. He looked around. Keiko still had her hands over her ears. Malcolm was busy making a cootie-catcher out of paper. Beanie and Chelsea were beginning a game of tic-tac-toe. Mrs. Pidgeon, back at her desk, was grading their spelling tests.
    "Time for a
suddenly
Gooney Bird whispered to Barry.
    "Yes," Barry agreed. He turned back to the class and spoke in a booming voice.
SUDDENLY
    The second-graders looked up with interest. Barry grinned and continued.
Suddenly the hunters came riding out of the trees on their horses, shooting their guns, and shot a lot of the bison. Even the young one.
    And after that there were practically no bison left in North America.
    "That's the end," Barry said. "It's a sad ending."
    "Some stories have sad endings," Gooney Bird announced. "It's good to be reminded of that."
    Tricia raised her hand. "But what's the
moral
? "she asked.
    Barry stood in front of the class with his arms folded across his chest. He thought and thought."
    Guns make a mess of things
, "he said finally.

9.

    "One potato, two potato, three potato
four
, "Gooney Bird chanted, moving back and forth between the clenched fists that Malcolm and Chelsea both held out.
    "Out goes Y, O, U," she concluded, and Malcolm scowled, realizing he had lost.
    "You'll get your turn next, Malcolm," Gooney Bird reassured him. "Anyway, it's supposed to be ladies before gentlemen.
    "Chelsea? Your turn for a fable," Gooney Bird said, as Malcolm, still scowling, went back to his desk. "Malcolm, you'll be next."
    Chelsea went up to the front of the class.
    "I bet we all can guess what your animal will be," Mrs. Pidgeon said, chuckling, as Chelsea picked up the chalk. "It's so obvious."
    Chelsea looked at Mrs. Pidgeon, and then at the class. "No, it isn't," she said. "No one will guess."
    Mrs. Pidgeon grinned. "Cluck cluck cluck," she said.
    "Cluck cluck cluck?" Chelsea repeated. "Excuse me?"
    "Isn't your fable about a chicken?" Mrs. Pidgeon asked.
    "Of course not. Who on earth would write a fable about a chicken? Chickens get their heads cut off, and then they get eaten," Chelsea said. She put her hands on her hips. "What kind of fable would
that
be?"
    From her desk, Keiko groaned. "Oh, no!" she said. "Head cut off?
Eaten?
"
    "Well, my goodness," Mrs. Pidgeon said. "I certainly blundered, didn't I? I thought I knew what you'd choose because of the 'ch' in your name. Chelsea equals chicken."
    "Wrong," said Chelsea.
    "But what other 'ch' animal is there?" Mrs. Pidgeon asked.
    "Chipmunk!" called Beanie.
    "Chimpanzee!" called Ben.
    "Chinchilla!" called Barry.
    "Chinchilla?" Gooney Bird asked. "What on earth is a chinchilla?"
    "A small rodent from South America," Barry explained. "It looks like a rabbit, but with big mouselike ears and a squirrel-like tail. It was first introduced into the United States back in—"
    He stopped. "I'm giving a report again," he said. "Sorry."
    "Have you memorized the encyclopedia, Barry?" Mrs. Pidgeon asked,