Four Dollars and Fifty Cents By Eric A. Kimmel Corby Arthur Beethoven Street Elementary School Third Grade

blacksmith noun pg 58 a person who makes objects from iron, which is heated and then hammered to make the desired shape.

He owed everybody money, from Big Oscar the blacksmith to Widow Macrae, who ran the Silver Dollar Café and baked the best biscuits west of the Rockies. My grandpa told me that he used to get shoes for his workhorse from a blacksmith.

collecting pg 58 getting payment for a debt

“You got as much chance of collecting that money as seeing Custer ride back from Little Bighorn.” The paperboy is collecting money for last month’s newspapers.

decentadjective pg 60 proper, respectable, acceptable to the community

“But if you let me take Shorty back to town, I’ll see that he gets a decent burial.” Telling him that I was sorry for being rude was the only decent thing to do.

volunteered verb pg 61 offered to do

“I’ll nail the lid down,” Duck Pooley volunteered. Half the class volunteered at the local animal shelter.

determined verb pg 62 firm, unwilling to change; stubbornly continued as planned

Shorty saw stars when the coffin hit the ground, but he was bound and determined not to pay that four dollars and fifty cents, so he lay still. Even though the snow was cold and wet, the little boy was determined to keep sledding.