READ the Fountain of Youth

Tall Tale STRATEGIES & SKILLS

Comprehension ELL Vocabulary Strategy: Visualize behave, territory, wandered Skill: Point of View

Vocabulary Pecos commenced, deed, exaggeration, heroic, impress, posed, sauntered, wring Bill Word Count: 1,961 Kisack by Ali Mac illustrated by Jon Davis

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ISBN: 978-0-02-119109-3 MHID: 0-02-119109-3 PAIRED Printed in the United States of America. The Fountain of Youth READ 8 9 10 11 12 DOC 22 21 20 19 18 D Genre Tall Tale CHAPTER ONE

Essential Question The Early Years of What kinds of stories do we tell? Pecos Bill Why do we tell them? When Pecos Bill was born, his mother thought her new baby was special . She was right .

At one month old, Pecos Bill could talk . At three months old, he could walk . He wandered over the hills and wrestled with bear cubs and mountain Pecos lions . He loved adventure, and that’s the truth! When settlers moved within 50 miles of the family farm, Bill’s father decided the area was too Bill crowded . So Bill’s family packed their things into their wagon and left Texas to find a place with by Ali MacKisack illustrated by Jon Davis more space .

During the journey, their wagon hit a rock in the middle of the Pecos River . Bill was flung out of the Chapter 1 wagon . He flew through the air and landed 12 miles The Early Years of Pecos Bill ...... 2 away . Bill’s brothers and sisters were making so Chapter 2 Pecos Bill, Cowboy ...... 6 much noise that nobody heard Bill yell . By the time Chapter 3 they looked for Bill, he was gone . Pecos Bill and the Tornado ...... 12 Respond to Reading ...... 16 PAIRED READ The Fountain of Youth ...... 17 Focus on Genre ...... 20.

Seide Preis/Photodisc/Getty Images Seide Preis/Photodisc/Getty 2 Images Seide Preis/Photodisc/Getty coyote What happened to Bill? “I’m a coyote,” Bill finally answered . An old coyote saw Bill and The cowboy laughed . He said, “You’re not a coyote . took Bill with him to live You’re a man ”. with his pack of coyotes . Bill lived with the coyotes for 15 Bill replied, “But I have fleas, and I howl at years . He grew up howling the moon ”. and hunting with the coyotes . The cowboy said, “Most people in Texas have fleas Soon Bill could howl and and howl at the moon . Also, coyotes have tails ”. hunt better than any coyote in the Southwest! Bill looked behind him and saw that the cowboy was right . Bill didn’t have a tail . Pecos Bill grew up to be Pecos Bill stronger, smarter, and faster Bill decided he would leave the coyotes and learn than any other creature on the continent . While he to be a cowboy . He thanked his coyote family . Then lived with the coyotes, Bill never saw another human . Bill and the cowboy left on a new adventure .

Then one day a cowboy rode by, and he saw Suddenly a 15-foot rattlesnake came out of a pile Bill . The cowboy couldn’t believe his eyes . Bill was of rocks . Pecos Bill narrowed his eyes . “I’ll teach you wrestling with a bear, and he was winning! how to behave,” he said to the snake .

“Who are you?” the cowboy asked . Bill swung the rattlesnake in the air, until the snake grew twice as long and four times as skinny . Then he Bill had not heard human language for a long wound up the snake like a rope and hung it over his time, so he had to think about what to say . shoulder, and rejoined the cowboy on their journey .

In Other Words could not believe what he was seeing. En español, couldn’t believe his eyes quiere decir no podía creerlo.

3 4 CHAPTER TWO Next, a mountain lion leaped out at Bill and the cowboy . The cowboy’s horse threw the cowboy off its Pecos Bill, back and galloped away . Bill wrestled the mountain cowboy lion to the ground and leaped on the lion’s back to chase after the horse . Bill took the snake from his Bill and the cowboy traveled across the prairie . shoulder . He swung it to make a loop . He threw the They were entering a territory that was no place for loop of snake over the horse’s head and pulled tight . weak men . In this place men were very tough . They crushed rocks with their teeth and ate nails for supper . Pecos Bill But Pecos Bill wasn’t afraid .

When they arrived at a camp, Pecos Bill made himself right at home . He sauntered to the campfire, ate beans, drank coffee, and picked his teeth with a cactus spine . loop of snake In Other Words made himself comfortable. En español, quiere decir sintió como en su casa. mountain lion (t) Seide Preis/Photodisc/Getty Images (t) Seide Preis/Photodisc/Getty

The cowboy was amazed . “I’ve never seen anything campfire like that!”

Pecos Bill answered, “That’s because nobody’s invented the lasso before ”.

STOP AND CHECK What happened when Bill met the cowboy?

5 6 Pecos Bill asked, “Who’s the boss around here?” Pecos Bill needed a A big man stepped forward . The man looked at horse . He decided to catch canyon Bill’s rattlesnake and the mountain lion . The man said, a stallion that no one “I was the boss, but you are the boss now ”. could catch . cliffs

After that, Bill invented everything a person Bill chased the stallion needed to be a cowboy . from Texas to Montana . He hid in a narrow canyon and He invented spurs, cowboy songs, and ten-gallon waited . When he saw the horse hats . Bill invented the lasso . He practiced using a galloping toward him, lasso with his snake . Soon, he could lasso the feathers Bill jumped out . off an eagle’s wing . The stallion was surprised . Bill learned that the ranchers had few cattle It skidded to a stop . Pecos Bill stallion because they couldn’t catch them . He lassoed a herd jumped on the horse and rode of cattle . Soon, the ranchers had so many cattle that the stallion home . they couldn’t keep them together . So Bill invented fence posts, cattle branding, and hitching rails . Bill was the only man who could ride the horse . The stallion flung all the other cowboys off its back . Bill’s ranch in Texas got so big that he used all The cowboys were flung so high that nobody saw of New Mexico as pasture . He used Arizona to raise them again . Bill named the horse Widow Maker . calves . He dug out the Rio Grande because he was tired of carrying water from the Gulf of California .

Language I and you are pronouns. Language He is a pronoun. What is Detective Identify the antecedents. Detective its antecedent?

7 8 After they had their wedding and posed for a One day, Pecos Bill fell in love with a woman wedding photograph, Slue-Foot Sue jumped on Widow named Slue-Foot Sue . Sue said she would marry him Maker’s back. if he let her ride Widow Maker . When Sue got on Widow Maker, the stallion Slue-Foot Sue was almost as good at riding horses commenced bucking like he’d sat on a cactus. The as Bill . The first time Pecos Bill saw her, Slue‑Foot Sue stallion threw Sue 40 miles up into the sky! was riding a giant catfish on the Rio Grande . Bill knew instantly that Sue was the woman for him . Slue-Foot Sue was wearing a bustle under her dress. A bustle is a kind of frame that keeps a Bill did not want Slue-Foot Sue to ride Widow woman’s dress in a nice shape. The bustle saved Maker, but he promised that she could ride Widow Sue’s life. When she came down to the ground, she Maker after they were married . landed on her bustle. Then she bounced back into the sky again. Up, down, up, down—Sue bounced on her bustle.

No one knows what happened next for sure. Some people say Pecos Bill lassoed Slue-Foot Sue back

Slue-Foot Sue down to earth and they lived happily ever after.

catfish

STOP AND CHECK What did Pecos Bill invent?

river

9 10 CHAPTER THREE Pecos Bill and the tornado

Pecos Bill could ride anything. However, he got thrown when he tried to ride a tornado.

There was a terrible drought near Kansas. The ground was so dry that if a man stepped in a crack, he wouldn’t stop falling for three days. The cows and horses were so dried up that even a small puff of wind blew them away. It was no exaggeration to say that even the cactuses were packing up and leaving.

When Pecos Bill saw a tornado, he decided to have some fun and do a good deed at the same time. Bill planned to get the water that was inside the tornado.

The tornado was the biggest tornado anyone had ever seen. It turned the sky dark purple and green and roared like a lion.

lasso

11 12 Images Seide Preis/Photodisc/Getty Bill climbed up a tree and told the tornado to Bill did not impress the tornado. The tornado come over. He planned to jump on the tornado bucked and twisted and tried to shake Bill loose, but when it got close, but the tornado was too big. Bill held on tight.

Then lightning struck, and Bill got an idea. The tornado hit the ground so hard that it split open the Grand Canyon, but Pecos Bill still held on. He grabbed the lightning, and it threw Pecos Bill He tied his lasso around the tornado and pulled. halfway to the sun. When Bill came back down, he landed perfectly on the tornado. The tornado spat out rivers and rain onto the dry ground. Bill pulled the lasso tighter. He wanted to wring all the water out of the tornado.

Pecos Bill rode the tornado across three states, and the drought ended. When they reached California, the tornado was very tired.

Bill let the tornado rest. Then the tornado bucked tornado and threw Bill off. He landed so hard that thousands of acres of rock and sand moved to make a basin called Death Valley.

Bill’s ride on the tornado led to the start of the rodeo. Now people ride bucking broncos instead of tornadoes. cowboy hat

spurs

13 14 There have been many stories told about Pecos Bill, but nobody knows how he died. Many people think that it happened like this:

One day, Bill was walking down the street. He saw Summarize Point of a man from the city wearing fancy cowboy clothes. Details View Pecos Bill knew that the man wasn’t a real cowboy Use the most important because the man didn’t have any dust on his clothes. events to summarize Pecos Bill. Your graphic organizer may Pecos Bill looked at the fake cowboy and started help you. to laugh. The man heard Bill laughing and tried to walk like a real cowboy. That was even funnier. Bill laughed harder. He laughed and laughed. And that’s how Pecos Bill died.

He laughed himself to death. Text Evidence 1. How can you tell that Pecos Bill is a tall tale? Give details about the characters and events. GENRE

2. What does the narrator think of Pecos Bill? Give an example of a description that shows this. POINT OF VIEW

3. What does the word tough mean on page 6? Use context clues and an antonym in the paragraph to help you. SYNONYMS AND ANTONYMS

4. Reread Chapter 3. Write about the narrator’s point of view of the tornado. WRITE ABOUT READING

STOP AND CHECK How did Pecos Bill end the drought?

15 16 Genre Legend Ponce de León imagined what it would be like to find the Fountain of Youth.

Compare Texts In ancient times, Alexander the Great had talked about Read a legend about an amazing fountain. a miraculous spring. In the story, warriors had bathed in the spring and they became young. Could the spring be the Fountain of Youth?

Some people thought the Fountain of Youth was in Ethiopia, in Africa. One person had told Ponce de León The a story about an Arawak chief from Cuba. The chief had sailed north with his crew, but they never returned. Were Fountain they living by the Fountain of Youth in Beimeni? of Many people believed the Fountain of Youth was in Youth the New World. They thought a heroic explorer would In 1513, a Spanish explorer named Juan Ponce de León discover it. Ponce de León wanted to be the explorer who sailed to the New World to discover the land of Beimeni. discovered the Fountain of Youth.

Everyone thought Beimeni was a place of beauty and One day, a sailor on Ponce de León’s ship spotted an wealth. If Ponce de León found Beimeni, he would be island. Ponce de León looked through his spyglass. He

allowed to govern it for the king of Spain. saw a beautiful land. It was covered in flowers. Juan Caminador Illustration:

Ponce de León heard a legend about a special pool of water called the Fountain of Youth. The legend claimed that anyone who drank from the Fountain of Youth would become young again.

Ponce de León wondered whether the Fountain of Youth was in the land of Beimeni.

spyglass

Illustration: Juan Caminador Illustration: 17 18 Ponce de León thought the beautiful land might be Beimeni. However, it was not Beimeni. Ponce de León and his crew had discovered La Florida, now known as Florida. Tall Tales Tall tales are stories about people who have Today the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is exaggerated abilities. The characters in tall tales have qualities located where Ponce de León landed on the Florida coast. that are valued in a culture, such as physical strength or The Fountain of Youth still has not been discovered. self-confidence. Sometimes a tall tale may be based on the life of a real person, but his or her deeds are exaggerated beyond what could really be true.

Read and Find In Pecos Bill, a baby starts to show his Po t cript extraordinary abilities by the time he is one month old. As Pecos Bill grows, his life becomes more and more incredible. There is little evidence to prove that Ponce de León These are described using exaggerated comparisons. For searched for the Fountain of Youth. However, people example, on page 7, Pecos Bill could “lasso the feathers off told the stories about him, his landing on Florida, and an eagle’s wing.” the Fountain of Youth. Over time, the stories blended and changed to become a legend. Your Turn Work with a partner. Make a list of abilities that you value, such as making or designing things, writing, being a good athlete, singing, dancing, or playing instruments.

Choose two abilities. For each choice, write an exaggerated description of a person with the ability. For example, “She was such a fast runner that she could run Make Connections around the world in the blink of an eye.” Why do you think people create legends to explain Share your descriptions with the class. nature or natural events? ESSENTIAL QUESTION How are the stories about Pecos Bill and Ponce de León similar? How are they different? TEXT TO TEXT

19 20 Literature Circles Sharing Stories GR S • Benchmark 50 • Lexile 730 Fiction Thinkmark

Characters Who are the main characters in Pecos Bill? Describe Pecos Bill.

Setting Where did Pecos Bill take place? When did it take place?

Sequence of Events What happened first, then, next, and finally in Pecos Bill?

Conclusions Based on Pecos Bill, what can you conclude were the qualities that people admired in the past?

Author’s Purpose WondersMHE.com Why do you think people created stories like Pecos Bill?