Pecos Bill Annotation Worksheet
Reader's Theater • Close Reading & Text Annotation
Pecos Bill: King of the Cowboys
Name:
Date:
Annotation Key: ⭐ [H] Hyperbole / Exaggeration 👤 [C] Character Traits 🌵 [O] Origin of Western Customs ❓ [?] Questions / Surprises
1 STAGING: The four narrators should all be seated on stools or high chairs. They should each have their scripts on a music stand or lectern. The other characters (some of whom only have a few lines) may be standing or walking around the staging area.
Characters:
• Narrator 1
• Pa
• Mountain Lion
• Narrator 2
• Ma
• Cowboy 2
• Narrator 3
• Cowboy 1
• Narrator 4
• Pecos Bill
2 NARRATOR 1: Now as you all know, Texas is a pretty big state. In fact, it's the biggest state of them all. And 'cause it's such a big state, it has big heroes. And the biggest of all the heroes was Pecos Bill, the King of the Cowboys.
4 NARRATOR 2: You see, Pecos Bill wasn't originally from Texas. No sir. He was from somewhere back east. From a family of 15 or 20 kids. In fact, there were so many kids in the family that the parents just didn't remember all the names of all the children.
5 NARRATOR 3: Well, as I heard it, Bill wanted a teddy bear—just like any other kid. But 'cause his family was so poor they couldn't afford a teddy bear just for Bill. So he decided to go out and get his own. So one day he crawled out of his crib and into the woods. There he found a genuine grizzly bear, which he wrapped up in his arms and took on home. Seems like Bill was going to be a little different from everyone else.
6 NARRATOR 4: Our saga begins when one day Bill's parents heard about some new land in the West. They heard that there was plenty of land . . . plenty of land for families with 15 or 20 children.
7 PA: Hey, Ma, I hear that there's plenty of land in the West for families with lots of children.
8 MA: You mean families like ours with so many children that we just can't remember their names?
9 PA: Yup!
10 MA: Well, why don't we just up and move out to that there West so we can build us a house big enough for all these children?
11 PA: Sounds like a grand idea!
12 NARRATOR 1: And so Pa and Ma packed all their children and all their animals in the back of their wagon and headed out for the West.
13 NARRATOR 2: However, as soon as the wagon went over the state line between Arkansas and Texas, it bounced Bill clean out of the wagon and alongside the road.
My Margin Notes
genuine: If something is genuine, it is real and exactly what it seems to be.
saga: A saga is a long, detailed story about heroic events.
⭐ Hyperbole Check (Lines 2–5):
How is baby Bill's "teddy bear" an impossible exaggeration?
✍️ Text Reactions & Notes:
Page 1 of 5 • Lines 1–13
Pecos Bill • Tall Tale Reader's Theater Act 1: Born in the East, Raised in the Wild Page 1
Reader's Theater • Close Reading & Text Annotation
Pecos Bill: King of the Cowboys
Act 2: The Coyote den & Cowboy Encounter
14 NARRATOR 3: Since there were so many children and animals in the wagon, nobody noticed that Bill wasn't in the wagon until about a week later. By then it was too late to go look for him, but Bill's parents figured that any baby who could wrestle a grizzly bear was certainly tough enough to survive in the wilds of Texas.
15 NARRATOR 4: As it happens, Bill got along fine. After falling out of the wagon, he crawled into a cave of coyotes and fell asleep. The mama coyote took a liking to Bill and began to raise him as her own. Bill soon learned all the ways of coyote life. He learned how to bay at the moon, how to hunt for rabbits, and how to wrestle with all the other coyotes in the den. Pretty soon, Bill was just a regular coyote.
16 NARRATOR 1: One day Bill was lapping up some water from the Pecos River along with the other coyotes. That's when a cowboy spotted him.
17 COWBOY 1: What in tarnation! You're just lapping up water like you was a regular coyote.
18 PECOS BILL: Well, that's what I am—a coyote. Anyways, ain't you never seen a real coyote afore?
19 COWBOY 1: 'Course I have. But you're not like any coyote I've ever seen. You look more like a human than you do a coyote.
20 PECOS BILL: But I am a coyote. I have fleas just like a coyote, don't I?
21 COWBOY 1: That don't mean nothin'. The thing that all coyotes got is a tail.
22 NARRATOR 2: With that, Bill turned around and looked back. It was then, for the first time in his life, that he realized he didn't have a tail.
23 PECOS BILL: I don't have a tail like my brothers and sisters. But if I'm not a coyote, then what am I?
My Margin Notes
👤 Identity Crisis (Lines 18–23):
Why is Bill so convinced he is a coyote? What is the cowboy's funny proof?
💬 Western Dialect:
Circle informal frontier speech (e.g., "tarnation", "afore"). What tone does this create?
✍️ Text Connections:
Page 2 of 5 • Lines 14–23
Pecos Bill • Tall Tale Reader's Theater Act 2: Discovering Humanity Page 2
Reader's Theater • Close Reading & Text Annotation
Pecos Bill: King of the Cowboys
Act 3: The Mountain Lion & Rattlesnake Lasso
24 COWBOY 1: You're a human being.
25 NARRATOR 3: Pecos Bill began to growl just like his coyote mother had taught him. But he knew deep down in his heart that he wasn't a real coyote. So he figured he might as well go along with the cowboy and begin acting like a real human acts.
26 NARRATOR 4: Bill started walking alongside the cowboy. Suddenly, a huge mountain lion jumped down from a cliff and right onto Bill's back. Without a thought, Bill just up and wrestled that mountain lion to the ground.
27 MOUNTAIN LION: I give up! I give up!
28 PECOS BILL: Your huntin' days are over. Seeing as how I need to be more like a human, I'll use you like a horse.
29 MOUNTAIN LION: A horse!
30 PECOS BILL: Yep, a horse! So let's be on our way.
31 NARRATOR 1: Bill jumped on the back of the mountain lion, and he and the cowboy continued on their way.
32 NARRATOR 2: They hadn't gone but 10 miles when a 10-foot rattlesnake swung out of a cactus plant and down on top of them.
33 NARRATOR 3: Bill jumped off the mountain lion's back and grabbed the end of that snake. He swung that snake around and around his head. As the snake was spinning round and round, it grew thinner and thinner. It also got longer and longer. By the time Bill was done, that 10-foot rattlesnake was 30 feet long.
34 NARRATOR 4: Bill coiled up that 30-foot snake just like it was a rope and slung it over his shoulder. From then on cowboys always carried a rope with them just like Pecos Bill carried a 30-foot snake with him wherever he went.
My Margin Notes
coiled: If you coiled something, you shaped it into loops or rings.
🌵 Tall Tale Origin (Line 34):
What real-life cowboy tradition does this tall tale claim Bill invented?
⭐ Physical Hyperbole:
List two wild things Bill does to wild beasts that no ordinary human could do:
✍️ Text Reactions & Notes:
Page 3 of 5 • Lines 24–34
Pecos Bill • Tall Tale Reader's Theater Act 3: Mounts and Lassos Page 3
Reader's Theater • Close Reading & Text Annotation
Pecos Bill: King of the Cowboys
Act 4: The Great Drought & The Twister
35 NARRATOR 1: After that, Bill and the cowboy rode on until they got to the ranch alongside the Pecos River. The other cowboys didn't know what to make of Bill, riding his mountain lion and carrying a snake wrapped across his shoulders. But I guess they could see that he was a good man, so they figured he'd be a good cowboy, too.
36 PECOS BILL: Howdy, folks, I'm new in these here parts. I just want to learn how to be a cowboy and help you fellas out.
37 COWBOY 2: Well, friend, you're welcome to stay as long as you want. We're always looking for new help, seeing as we have the whole state of Texas to take care of and lots of cattle to keep an eye on.
38 PECOS BILL: I appreciate that. By the way, what would you like to have me do now?
39 COWBOY 2: Well, I don't think it's anything you can help us with. See, we're just in the biggest drought that Texas ever had. We ain't had no water for months and months now.
40 PECOS BILL: Well, I reckon I can help with that.
41 NARRATOR 2: And with that, Bill just swung his rattlesnake lasso round and round and he roped up all the water from the Rio Grande River. After that there was no more problem with any drought.
42 NARRATOR 3: Seems like there was nothing that Bill couldn't do. Like that time when the biggest and meanest tornado that ever was came into Texas. Bill decided that the only way to tame that tornado was to ride it until it spun itself out.
43 NARRATOR 4: So Bill just waited until that tornado came up and over the state line with Oklahoma. It slowed down a little as it crossed into Texas, and that's when Bill just up and jumped on that tornado's back.
44 NARRATOR 1: Now, that tornado didn't like anybody ridin' its back. It turned itself from green to brown to black and began to leaping around like it was full of about a hundred wildcats. That tornado whipped and whirled and whipped and whirled some more, just tryin' to throw Bill off its back.
45 PECOS BILL: Yowee! Hold on tight! I aim to tame you, seein' as how I'm the toughest cowboy in these here parts. You ain't about to throw me. No sir.
My Margin Notes
whirled: If something whirled, it spun and turned very quickly.
tame: If you tame a wild animal, you teach it to do what you want.
🌪️ Personification (Line 44):
How does the storyteller treat the tornado like a living, bucking wild creature?
⭐ Tall Tale Solutions:
How does Bill solve Texas's worst drought in just one sentence?
✍️ Text Reactions & Notes:
Page 4 of 5 • Lines 35–45
Pecos Bill • Tall Tale Reader's Theater Act 4: Taking on Texas Weather Page 4
Reader's Theater • Close Reading & Text Annotation
Pecos Bill: King of the Cowboys
Act 5: Ridin' the Twister & Legend of Texas
46 NARRATOR 2: Well, that tornado started to do all kinds of mean things as it spun faster and faster. It humped its back, it threw itself all about, it jumped up and it jumped down, trying to toss Bill back on to the ground. It just got meaner and meaner every way it twisted and turned.
47 NARRATOR 3: In fact, it got to be so mean and so ornery that it tied up rivers into knots and emptied lakes of all their water. Why, Bill and that twister went from one end of Texas to the other—the twister was twisting and Bill was hangin' on for dear life. But try as it might that twister could never throw Bill. No way! Bill just rode that tornado like it was the meanest bull at a rodeo. He jabbed it with his spurs and wrapped his arms tighter and tighter around that spinning tornado.
48 NARRATOR 4: Finally, that tornado figured it wasn't going to get Bill off its back. So it headed itself out to California and just rained itself out. Seems it rained so much water that it washed out the Grand Canyon. Why, that mean old tornado was worn down to nothing, and by the time they both reached the Pacific Ocean, that tornado was nothing but a little bitty puff of wind.
49 NARRATOR 1: When Bill fell off, he hit the ground so hard that the ground just sank right below sea level. Folks in those parts now call that part of California Death Valley.
50 PECOS BILL: There, that should teach those tornadoes a thing or two!
51 NARRATOR 2: When Bill got back to Texas, he started to clean up the mess he and that tornado made.
52 NARRATOR 3: When he first climbed on the back of the tornado, Texas had been covered by forests of trees. But now all the land had been swept clean of every single tree from the full force of that wrestling match between Bill and the tornado.
53 NARRATOR 4: And if you go and visit Texas today, you will see lots of wide open spaces all over the state. Wide open spaces thanks to that wrestling match between the greatest cowboy who ever lived and one mean and wild tornado. Yup, Pecos Bill was the best cowboy there ever was . . . the meanest, the strongest, and the best there ever was!
My Margin Notes
🗺️ Geographical Origins:
Which 3 famous landmarks does the story claim were caused by Bill's ride?
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Canyon:
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Valley:
-
Texas:
🤠 The Tall Tale Hero:
Look at the final lines (53). What three adjectives summarize Pecos Bill?
✍️ Final Thoughts:
Page 5 of 5 • Lines 46–53
Tall Tale Analysis: Text Evidence Reflection Complete after reading
1. Why do tall tales use hyperbole (extreme exaggeration)? Give one favorite example from the script:
2. How did Bill's coyote upbringing help him become the "greatest cowboy who ever lived"?
Pecos Bill • Tall Tale Reader's Theater Act 5: The Legend Lives On Page 5
