Rathers Magic Hands

Hello! Come on, everybody, take a seat.

Wow!

Woo!

BOTH: Hello!

-BOTH:

-Hello!

Wiggle your fingers and cross your feet.

Are you ready?

One, two, three, watch me.

Four, five, six, I've got some tricks.

Seven, eight, nine, it's almost time.

10!

ALL: Magic hands!

# Just look at my magic

# My magic hands

# Make your fingers super-duper. #

Magic Hands!

-BOTH:

-Hello!

My name is...

And my name is...

Look at what my hands can do!

Oh, look, it's an owl.

Isn't it beautiful?

Owls are very clever birds.

If I was going to be an animal,

I think I'd like to be an owl.

I'd live in a tree,

and I'd sleep during the day,

and go out at night

to look for dinner.

But if you were an owl,

you'd eat worms and spiders

and lizards and frogs and mice.

Yuk!

Not this owl.

I'd still eat hamburgers.

If you were an animal,

-what animal would you be?

-Hmm...

That's a hard question.

I'll tell you later.

This reminds me of a poem.

It's by Mary Hunter Austin

and it's called Rathers.

Are you ready?

I know very well what I'd rather be,

if I didn't always have to be me.

I'd rather be an owl...

..a downy feathered owl...

a wink-ity, blink-ity, yellow-eyed owl...

..in a hole in a hollow tree.

I'd take my dinner in chipmunk town...

..and wouldn't I gobble the field mice down...

..if I were a wink-ity, blink-ity owl...

and I didn't always have to be me?

I know very well what I'd like to do,

if I didn't have to do what I do.

I'd go and be a woodpecker...

..a rap-ity, tap-ity, red-headed woodpecker...

..in the top of a tall old tree.

And I'd never take a look

at a lesson or a book...

..and I'd scold like a pirate on the sea...

..if I only had to do what I like to do,

and didn't always have to be me!

Or else I'd be an antelope...

..a prong-horned antelope,

with lots of other antelope...

..skimming like a cloud

on a wire-grass plain...

..a bounding, bouncing antelope.

You'd never get me back to my desk again!

Or I might be a puma...

..a singe-coloured puma,

a slinking sly-footed puma...

..as fierce as fierce could be...

..and I'd wait by the waterholes

where antelope drink...

..in the cool of the morning, and I do not think...

that ever any antelope could get away from me!

But if I were a hunter...

..I'd like to be a hunter...

I'd have a bow made of juniper wood

from a lightning-blasted tree...

..and I'd creep, and I'd creep,

on that puma asleep,

a flint-tipped arrow,

an eagle-feathered arrow...

..for a puma kills calves

and a puma kills sheep,

and he'd never eat any more antelope

if he once met up with me!

That was a lot of fun.

I'm trying to decide

if I still want to be an owl,

or if I'd rather be a puma.

What would you be,

if you could be any animal in the world?

Would you be a lion or a tiger,

or maybe a walrus,

or a beautiful robin?

I think I would definitely be a bird of some kind.

That reminds me of another poem

by Mary Hunter Austin.

It's a very short poem

called The Sandhill Crane.

Are you ready?

Whenever the days are cool and clear

the sandhill crane goes walking...

..across the field by the flashing weir,

slowly, solemnly stalking.

The little frogs in the tules hear...

..and jump for their lives if he comes near.

The fishes scuttle away in fear

when the sandhill crane goes walking.

The field folk know

if he comes that way

slowly, solemnly stalking,

there is danger and death

in the least delay

when the sandhill crane goes walking.

The chipmunks stop

in the midst of play,

the gophers hide,

in their holes, away,

and, "Hush! Oh, hush!"

the fieldmice say,

when the sandhill crane goes walking.

What unusual birds.

I love the red mark above their beaks.

I've never seen one of them before.

I really like the way they walk.

They're very funny to watch, aren't they?

Can you walk like the sandhill crane?

-Bye-bye!

-Bye!

-BOTH:

-Quack, quack, quack...

ALL: Magic Hands!

# Just look at my magic

# My magic hands

# Make your fingers super-duper. #

Magic Hands!