Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Mr. Arable's words are the turn of the whole chapter. One sentence holds both sides of the trouble: the fun of raising a baby pig, the small word but, and the farm rule that a grown pig must be sold. Copying the quotation marks gives practice holding a speaker's exact words, like Fern's brave line in chapter one.
"He's got to go, Fern," he said. "You have had your fun raising a baby pig, but Wilbur is not a baby any longer and he has got to be sold."
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Before the questions, tell what happens to Wilbur in this chapter, in order. Start with the bottle and the bib. Then tell about the yard under the apple tree, the doll carriage, and the trip to the brook. End with the day Mr. Arable says Wilbur must be sold and where Wilbur goes to live next.
Discussion Questions
- Fern ties a bib on Wilbur and wheels him in the doll carriage like one of her babies. Mr. Arable looks at the same pig and says he is now big enough to sell. Why do Fern and her father see the same pig so differently? Use the chapter's details about what each one says and does with Wilbur.
- At bedtime Fern worries that Wilbur will be cold in his yard. Her father does not give her the answer. He says, 'You watch and see what he does.' Why might her father want Fern to watch instead of telling her the answer himself? Use the scene where Wilbur digs a tunnel in the straw and Fern's reaction when he disappears inside it.
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Vocabulary
Item 1
Looking at someone with great love, the way Wilbur gazes up at Fern while she holds his bottle.
Item 2
Very young babies — what Fern pretends Wilbur and her doll are when she wheels them in the carriage.
Item 3
A passage dug through something. Wilbur makes one in the straw so he can sleep warm and covered.
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Critical Thinking
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