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254 Reading: The Sport of Champions!
Pecos Bill Rides a Tornado
(Traditional. Retold by Jeanette Larson.)
Everyone in the Texas knows that Pecos Bill could ride anything. There weren’t no bronco that
could throw him! Fact is, I only once heard of Bill getting’ thrown in his whole life as a
cowboy. Yep, he was way up near Wichita Falls when he decided to ride a tornado.
Now Bill wasn’t gonna ride just any ole tornado, no siree Bob! He waited until he saw the
biggest gosh-darned tornado anyone had ever seen. The sky was turning green and black and the
clouds were piling high. The wind started roaring so loud that it woke up the farmers all the way
across the ocean. But Bill, he just grabbed that tornado, pushed it down onto the ground and
jumped on its back. That tornado whipped and whooshed and whirled and side winded. It tossed
and turned and spun and spit. It ran Bill all the way down to San Antonio! That tornado tied the
rivers into knots, flattened all the trees, and cut a path as wide as a highway. But Bill hung on
and kept riding all calm-like. In fact, once in awhile, he’d give that ole tornado a jab with his
spurs just to get it madder!
Finally, that tornado understood it wasn’t getting this cowboy off its back any way or any how.
So the tornado headed west to California dumping a bunch of rain on the way. The tornado
dumped so much rain that the Grand Canyon filled up! When the tornado was down to
practically nothing, Bill finally fell off. The place where he hit the ground sank down so low it
was now below sea level. And people today call that spot Death Valley.
Anyway, that’s how rodeo riding got started. But if you try it today, stick to riding broncos!
Crafts
Box Cars
Materials
Assorted empty boxes and containers, such as individual packages of cereal, milk cartons, shoe
boxes
Styrofoam egg cartons
Toilet paper tubes
Aluminum foil
Scissors
Clear cellophane
Plastic straws
Construction paper
Crayons or markers
Scotch tape
Stickers (optional)