00:00The
00:27Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise Brown illustrated by David Diaz.
00:37Once upon a time in a cornfield there lived a scarecrow and his scarecrow wife and their
00:42little scarecrow boy.
00:48Every day of the world old man's scarecrow went into the cornfield to make faces at the
00:54And every day of the world his little scarecrow boy wanted to come too.
00:59And every day of the world old man's scarecrow said no, no little boy, you can't go, you're
01:06not fierce enough to scare a crow, wait till you grow.
01:11So every day the little scarecrow boy stayed at home all day and just grew.
01:19Every day out in the field old man's scarecrow waved his arms and made terrible faces.
01:25He made such terrible faces that the crows nearly lost their feathers at the sight of
01:30him there.
01:31And they flew far away, far away.
01:37Every evening when the sun went down old man's scarecrow came rattling home.
01:43And all evening he sat in his scarecrow house teaching his little scarecrow boy how to make
01:48fierce faces.
01:50Old lady's scarecrow whistled through her straw teeth at the look of him there.
01:58But early in the morning when the sun came up it was the same old no, no little boy,
02:04you can't go, you're not fierce enough to scare a crow, wait till you grow.
02:10So the little scarecrow boy stayed at home all day and just grew.
02:19Then one day after the little boy had learned all six of his father's terrible faces so
02:24that he could make them one after the other, he decided to run away.
02:29Early the next morning he would go out into the cornfield and he would frighten a crow.
02:35So before the sun was up or old man's scarecrow was up or old lady's scarecrow was up, the
02:42little scarecrow boy slipped out of bed, dressed quietly on tiptoe and went quietly, quietly,
02:48quietly out of the house and over to the cornfield up on his father's post in his father's place.
02:59It was a fine shining morning with the sun gleaming green down on the corn blades.
03:04Crows circled in the air far away over the trees.
03:08The little scarecrow boy waved his arms through the air, he had never felt fiercer in all
03:13his life.
03:15And then came flying a big black crow, oh, oh, oh, the little scarecrow made his first
03:21fierce face and still came flying the big black crow, oh, oh, oh, the little scarecrow
03:31boy made his second fierce face and still came flying the big black crow.
03:41His third face, oh, oh, oh, time to go.
03:45So the little scarecrow boy ran and he ran down the corn rows.
03:50The black flapping wings made a noise now and looking back he could see the blue sky
03:56through the ragged feathers of the nearest crow.
04:02He ran and he ran, then he stopped his fourth face and still came flying the big black crow.
04:11So he ran and he ran and he ran and he ran and the crow flew and he flew and he flew
04:17and he flew and the little scarecrow boy ran.
04:26And then he made his fifth and next fiercest face of all and still came flying the big
04:31black crow.
04:33The little boy had only one face left now and hardly any breath.
04:38Even so, he stopped and with his arms stretched wide above his head and his fingers drooping
04:45on his hands, he gave the big crow the sixth face.
04:54And whoa, the old crow flew backwards through the air, feathers flying everywhere until
05:01there wasn't even the shadow of a crow on the land.
05:04A scarecrow at last.
05:06The little scarecrow boy knew that he was as fierce a scarecrow as there was in all
05:11the cornfields in all the world.
05:17And then he saw a shadow in front of him and he looked up and there behind him was old
05:23man Scarecrow, his father.
05:26And his father was proud of his little boy who had made all six faces at the crows.
05:35And he picked up his little scarecrow boy in his scarecrow arms and they went home to
05:40breakfast.
05:45And when the little scarecrow grew up, he was the fiercest scarecrow in all the fields
05:51in all the world.
