Page 66 - English Reader - 8
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8 8 The Bird
The Bird
Warm-Up
Warm-Up
If you are asked to choose between money and freedom, what do you think you would
choose? This birdie, however, refuses to trade her freedom for all the goodies being offered
to her. Read this poem in which a child is tempting a bird to be her pet.
Child:
Birdie, Birdie, will you, pet?
Summer-time is far away yet,
You’ll have silken quilts and a velvet bed,
And a pillow of satin for your head!
Bird:
I’d rather sleep in the ivy wall;
No rain comes through, tho’ I hear it fall.
The sun peeps gay at dawn of day,
And I sing, and wing away, away!
Child:
O Birdie, Birdie, will you, pet?
Diamond-stones and amber and jet.
We’ll string on a necklace fair and fine,
To please this pretty bird of mine!
Bird:
O thanks for diamonds and thanks for jet,
But here is something daintier yet,
A feather necklace round and round,
That I wouldn’t sell for a thousand pound!
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