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Paul Bunyan isn’t the only giant in American legends. Old-timers along the Mississippi River tell of a giant of a woman— Annie Christmas. The stories say she worked on the river docks near the French Quarter in New Orleans and she was fearless—especially when it came to dealing with bullies who hung out on the docks.
When you see a blank line in the story below, a word is missing. Select one of the words in Annie’s barrel for each blank until the story makes sense.
Occasionally, Annie liked to get all dressed up. Once, she put on a ______ satin dress and red feather plumes in her hair and took a trip on a ____________ called the Natchez Belle . The captain of that boat was as stubborn as he was mean. When the __________ turned
bad, he decided to take a shortcut through a channel that cut across a bend in the ________________ River. Annie knew the river like the back of her hand and she knew that the cutoff was full of snags and sandbars that could ______ the big paddle wheeler. But the stubborn captain wouldn’t listen. When the boat hit a sandbar, Annie loaded
Help Annie nd the two matching barrels.
passengers on her keelboat and fought the current back to the main river. Behind her the Natchez Belle was broken up and __________ by the muddy, swirling river water. The _______________ hugged Annie, thanking her for saving their lives. They say Annie’s face turned as red as her dress. Standards Link: Literary Response: Students comprehend basic plots of folktales.
Longshoreman n . A dock worker who loads and unloads ships. Keelboat n . A narrow flat-bottomed river boat used to carry freight.
© Vicki Whiting May 2026
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