Mrs. Badger's Honey Cake

Mrs. Badger's Honey Cake

Mrs. Badger's Honey Cake
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 3 to 4
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	3.22

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		nourishment, underground, nearly, braid, giant, badger, folds, lined, fresh, lock, search, nowhere, forlorn, stubborn, sunflower, fine
	content words:		Widow Browning

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Mrs. Badger's Honey Cake
By Joyce Furstenau

¹     "It is a fine, fine day for baking," said Mrs. Badger to her four children. "Today, I shall bake a fresh, sweet honey cake. Let's see, I have plenty of flour. I have plenty of brown sugar. I have honey. I have spices, butter, and nuts. Oh, my, I have no eggs! I will need three eggs for my honey cake," she said looking in her cupboards. "I cannot make a honey cake without eggs."

²     Mrs. Badger put on her bonnet and picked up her egg basket. She looked all over her neat little underground cottage for something to put in her basket to trade. She found a small pile of sunflower seeds she had been saving.

³     "Perhaps I can find someone who will trade three eggs for these seeds," she said aloud. She lined her basket with a clean, white napkin. Mrs. Badger filled it with sunflower seeds. She covered the seeds under the folds of the napkin. She put on her pretty blue cape and set off into the woods with her basket of seeds.

⁴     Mrs. Badger had not gone very far when she saw two foxes sitting beside the road preparing to feast on a bubbling pot of stew. Mrs. Badger sniffed the air. The aroma of the stew smelled delicious. The foxes invited Mrs. Badger to join them. She said she was tempted, but she could not stay for stew. She told them about her honey cake and that she was hoping to find someone who would trade some eggs for her seeds. The foxes told Mrs. Badger they were sorry they had no eggs, but they thought the seeds would make a flavorful addition to their simmering stew. The foxes asked if she would consider trading her sunflower seeds for some carrots.

⁵     Mrs. Badger thought to herself, "Perhaps I could get some eggs for a basket of carrots down the road." She traded the seeds for the carrots, and off she went, still in search of eggs for her honey cake.

⁶     At the edge of the forest, she noticed three fine horses grazing in a meadow. "Hey, ho!" said the horses. "What is that I smell in your basket?" one horse whinnied, for the aroma of the fresh carrots had reached his nose.

⁷     "Nothing but a basket of carrots," answered Mrs. Badger. She went on to tell the horses about the sunflower seeds, the basket of carrots, and her search for three eggs for her honey cake. The horses were nearly overcome with desire for the carrots.

⁸     "Would you consider trading your carrots for a basket of fine, sturdy horsehair?" asked the horses hungrily.

Paragraphs 9 to 24:
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