title: Five Silly Fishermen (Step-Into-Reading, Step 2)
author:  Roberta Edwards 
description: PreSchool-Grade 2-- In this delightful variation of the old tale, five fishermen spend the day fishing, and before going home, decide to count to make sure one of them has not drowned during the day. Each fisherman counts and comes up with only four fishermen, forgetting himself as he counts. They cry and bemoan the loss of their friend until a little girl comes along and "finds" their missing friend in exchange for a fish. She tells them to jump into the river while she counts--to five. She goes home with the fish, but the fishermen are happy to be reunited. Soft-colored caricature drawings extend the humor of the text. The font is appropriately large and well laid-out with the illustrations. Good silly fun for very young readers. --Sharron McElmeel, Cedar Rapids Community Schools, IA<br />Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text: **7**
  
  **N IGHT ON THE LAKE**
  
  **T** wo moons shone on the night the ale boy received his unusual orders. One
  rang out in the black sky, sharp and clear as an owl's cry. The other, an echo
  of the first, rested uneasily on the glassy surface of the lake. The forest
  held its breath, so that any ripple on the water indicated a presence, a
  movement, evidence of something--a gator, a rat, an eel, a fish--in a dive or
  on the rise.
  
  The ale boy pushed the last crate of bottles off the edge of the dock and onto
  the rocking raft. Sweat ran cold down his back. He pulled on his heavy winter
  cloak, and when his head came up through it, he saw that the dock's duty
  officer had come to watch him. The guard frowned his trained suspicion, but
  his scowl had no effect on the boy, who had yet to see a smile from anyone on
  this day of endless errands.
  
  _You could have helped me,_ the boy thought, but did not say.
  
  The guard scowled deeper as though he had heard the words anyway, or perhaps
  it just looked t