edHelper.com
Autumn

Crandall Farm Hay Rides, Part 1

Crandall Farm Hay Rides, Part 1
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 4 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.67

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    eccentric, repaired, extremely, maintain, equipment, harness, sweaty, breed, especially, improve, volunteer, bale, confusion, daily, working, portion

Print Crandall Farm Hay Rides, Part 1
edHelper.com subscriber options:
     Print Crandall Farm Hay Rides, Part 1  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)
     Quickly print reading comprehension
     Print a proofreading activity

Feedback on Crandall Farm Hay Rides, Part 1
     Leave your feedback on Crandall Farm Hay Rides, Part 1  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

Crandall Farm Hay Rides, Part 1
By Mary Lynn Bushong 		  
1     Roddie, Simon, and Matthew had waited a long time for this day. Now they stood with sweaty palms as their work was inspected.
 
2     They had repaired the big old hay wagons and had stacked bales of straw down the center for seats. The repairs had taken a good portion of the summer. Then they had painted the wagons in bright colors. The repairs and painting hadn't taken all summer, but learning to handle the huge Shire horses had taken a large part of it.
 
3     Mr. Crandall, who owned the farm, had once used the horses for farming. He considered himself a dying breed, while neighbors thought him merely eccentric. He chose not to mechanize his farm but to spend the extra time it required to maintain it with real horsepower.
 
4     When a bad fall had immobilized the farmer with a broken leg in the spring, the three future farmers had stepped in to volunteer. The ground had already been planted, but the horses needed daily care.
 
5     Roddie had never been around such large horses before. The four geldings averaged seventeen and a half hands high each, while the two mares were about seventeen hands high.
 
6     "Whoever came up with such a strange measurement?" grumbled Roddie, holding up his hands.
 
7     "It's just one of the antiquated methods of measuring that became closely linked with horses," said Matthew. "You know, furlongs, rods, chains?"
 
8     "You lost me," said Roddie, shaking his head in confusion.

Paragraphs 9 to 21:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable
Copyright © 2008 edHelper