The Borrowed Word

Chapter 1A Grand Arrival

Chavy's story began with a rabbit arriving at a tea party.

The rabbit wore a very large hat. Chavy liked the hat, the party, and the fact that a squirrel had brought enough acorns for eight guests but only one napkin.

The first sentence still sounded too plain.

Beside her, Penina was writing a story about a traveler.

"What is that word?" Chavy asked.

"Famished."

"It sounds important."

Chavy wrote it into her own first sentence.

Chapter 2After Lunch

She read the sentence quietly: "After a large lunch, the rabbit arrived famished at the tea party."

That sounded much grander than "wearing his biggest hat."

She wrote another paragraph. The rabbit politely refused cake because he had just eaten. The squirrel offered him an acorn instead. He refused that too.

Penina glanced at the page when Chavy asked her to listen.

"I thought he was hungry," Penina said.

"No, he ate lunch."

"But you said famished."

Chapter 3The Wrong Guess

Chavy looked at the first sentence.

"Doesn't that mean arriving in a grand way?"

Penina shook her head. "It means very hungry."

The rabbit's hat suddenly seemed to have nothing to do with the word beside it.

"Then my rabbit is very hungry and too full for cake."

Penina laughed. Chavy did too, but her face was warm.

She had liked the sound so much that she had not asked what it meant.

"Can I change his lunch?" she asked.

"You can. But did you want a hungry rabbit?"

Chapter 4Keeping the Rabbit

Chavy read the next paragraph. The joke was that every guest had brought food and the rabbit could not eat another bite. Later, the squirrel tried using the enormous hat as a napkin holder.

A hungry rabbit would change the whole party.

"I want the full rabbit," she said.

She crossed out famished with one neat line and wrote "wearing his biggest hat."

The sentence was plain again. It also described exactly what she wanted someone to picture.

Penina listened as Chavy read the hat part aloud.

"That makes the napkin joke work," she said.

Chapter 5A Place for the Word

Mrs. Adler came around the tables. Chavy showed her the crossed-out sentence.

"I used this word without knowing what it meant. Can you check the new sentence?"

Mrs. Adler read it. "The new one is clear."

"Could I say the squirrel was famished?"

"If the squirrel is very hungry. What in your story shows that?"

Chavy looked at the squirrel's eight bags of acorns. He had brought them to share, not because he was hungry.

"Nothing yet. I will save the word for another story."

Chapter 6One Napkin

At reading time, Chavy read her story. The girls laughed when the squirrel put the napkin on the rabbit's hat. The rabbit bowed; the napkin slid onto his nose.

Afterward, Penina showed Chavy another word.

"Do you know this one?"

"No. What does it mean?"

Chavy waited for the answer before deciding whether she needed it.