40
Editors
Jerry Stemach, MS, CCC-SLP
Karen Erickson, PhD Center for Literacy and Disability StudiesUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Exclusively Published byDon Johnston Incorporated 26799 West Commerce Drive Volo, IL 60073 USA myreadtopia.com
Copyright © 1999-2019 Start to Finish L.L.C. Start-to-Finish and the Don Johnston logos are registered trademarks. Readtopia is a trademark of Start to Finish L.L.C.
Start to Finish L.L.C. grants the rights for teachers and other educational professionals to download, print, reproduce, and distribute this book with students, or portions of it in any form, in both print and electronic formats while their subscription is active.
Don Johnston IncorporatedVolo, Illinois
Famous Short Stories
The Gold Bug
byEdgar Allan Poe
retold by Richard Ganci and Jerry Stemach
Contents
Part 1 Wolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Part 2 The Gold Bug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Part 3 The Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Part 4 The Treasure Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
About the Start-to-Finish Author . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
About the Start-to-Finish Author . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About the Original Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4
Part 1: Wolf
One day, I was hiking
alone on Sullivan’s Island.
Sullivan’s Island is near
the coast of South Carolina.
I heard someone shouting,
“Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!”
I could hear an animal crashing
through the bushes nearby.
5
A huge, gray animal landed
on my chest. I fell to the ground.
I thought that I was going to die.
6
Well, I didn’t die because
the huge, gray animal
wasn’t a wolf at all.
It was just a big dog
named Wolf.
Two men were looking down at me, and they were
laughing. One of the men said to me, “I’m sorry
about my dog. That’s the way he says ‘hello.’”
7
The man’s name was William Legrand.
The other man’s name was Jupiter.
Jupiter worked for Legrand.
Jupiter did all the cooking and the cleaning.
8
William Legrand was a scientist. He loved to study
bugs and insects. He had a collection of rare insects.
Legrand had once been a rich man,
but now he was poor. He wanted to be rich again.
It was good that he had a kind helper like Jupiter.
9
One cold evening,
I crossed over to
Sullivan’s Island
and walked to their hut.
I knocked on the door
but no one was at home.
I opened the door and went in.
There was a fire going in the fireplace.
It was cold outside, so I was happy
to sit by the fire.
10
After a while, Legrand and Jupiter
came back to the hut.
“Well, well. Look who’s here!” said Legrand.
He sat down in a chair next to me by the fire.
“We were out hunting for bugs,”
said Legrand. “I have found some
good bugs over the years.
But the bug that I just found is the best.”
11
Jupiter was over by the stove
but he could hear us talking.
He said to Legrand,
“You can just forget about
that bug. That bug is bad luck.”
12
Part 2: The Gold Bug
Legrand laughed when Jupiter said that the bug
was bad luck. Legrand said, “I call it the gold bug!”
He handed the bug to me. It felt very heavy.
13
The bug really did look
like it was made out of gold.
“Are you sure it’s dead?”
I asked.
“It’s dead,” said Legrand.
“But before it died, it bit me.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jupiter. “That bug bit Legrand.
Now, all he thinks about is gold. He thinks that
he is going to find gold and be a rich man again.”
14
Legrand handed me something else.
“It’s a piece of parchment,” he said.
“I found it near the gold bug.”
“What’s parchment?” I asked.
“Parchment is made from the skin of a sheep
or a goat,” said Legrand. “When it’s dried out,
you can write on it. It can last a very long time.”
15
I held the parchment near the fire to look at it.
It was blank on both sides. I put the parchment
on the table. Legrand picked it up right away.
After dinner, I saw Legrand put the
parchment close to the fire again.
It looked like he was reading something.
16
Finally, I said,
“What are you
doing, Legrand?”
“This piece
of parchment
might be very
important,” he said.
“Why?” I asked.
“I can’t tell you
just yet,” he said.
A few days later,
I woke up
and heard Jupiter
pounding on my door.
He was shouting
at me.
“I knew it! I knew it!”
he yelled.
17
“What’s the matter, Jupiter?” I asked.
“Legrand is gone,” Jupiter shouted.
“He’s been out all night long.
Wolf is also gone. And so is that gold bug.”
“Maybe Legrand couldn’t sleep,” I said.
“Maybe he just took a long walk.”
“No!” said Jupiter. “It’s all because
of the gold bug. The bite from that bug
has made him crazy.”
18
I went back to the hut with Jupiter.
Legrand was not there.
“If he isn’t back in one hour,
we will call the police,” I said.
19
Part 3: The Map
Jupiter and I had only waited a few minutes
before Legrand and Wolf came through the
door. Legrand had a strange look in his eyes.
Jupiter was angry.
He shouted at Legrand,
“Why did you go off
by yourself?”
“Jupiter has good
reasons to be mad,”
I said. “He is supposed
to take care of you.”
20
Legrand looked at Jupiter and me.
“I want to show you both something,”
he said. “But first we need to build a fire.”
Legrand handed me the piece
of parchment. “Look at it,” he said.
“There’s nothing to look at,” I said.
“It’s blank on both sides.”
21
“Hold it close to the fire,” Legrand said.
I did what he said to do. “Now take it away
from the fire, and look at it,” he said.
I was so surprised
that I almost fell
out of my chair.
There was something
on the parchment!
It looked like
some sort of map.
I showed it to Jupiter.
22
“You can only see it for a while,” said Legrand.
“It’s some kind of secret ink. It can only be seen
when it’s near heat.”
23
“Who drew the map?” I asked.
“Look at the bottom of the parchment,”
said Legrand. “Do you see the drawing
of an animal?” he asked.
Jupiter shouted, “A goat!”
“Yes,” said Legrand.
“What is another name
for a goat? What do you
call a young goat?”
“A young goat is called
a kid,” I said.
24
“That’s right,” Legrand said.
“Have you ever heard
the name Captain Kidd?”
I jumped up from my chair.
“Captain Kidd!
The famous pirate!”
Captain Kidd was the most famous of all the pirates.
He was caught and hanged in 1701. But before he
was caught, he buried a huge treasure chest somewhere.
25
“That’s what I was doing last night,”
said Legrand. “I made a copy of the
map, and then I followed the map.”
26
“Do you know where the treasure
is buried?” I asked him.
“Yes, I think so,” Legrand said.
Then he picked up his backpack
and said, “Let’s go get it!”
27
Part 4: The Treasure Hunt
Legrand had a boat ready for us.
We rowed the boat for about an hour.
Then we left the boat on a beach
and walked for another hour.
28
Legrand took out his map. He pointed to a tall,
old tree. He asked Jupiter, “Can you climb up
that tree?”
“I’m still the best tree climber there is,” Jupiter said.
“Can you climb up
to the seventh branch?”
Legrand asked.
“Sure,” Jupiter said.
Legrand handed
Jupiter a long string.
The gold bug
was tied to one
end of the string.
29
Jupiter got up to the seventh branch.
“I’m here,” he said. “Now what?”
“Now crawl out on the branch,” said Legrand.
“And don’t be afraid, no matter what you see.”
Just then, Jupiter
yelled. “There is
a skull up here!
I am up here with
a dead man’s head!”
“Don’t worry,”
said Legrand.
“He’s been dead
for over 100 years.”
30
“Now, listen, Jupiter,” said Legrand.
“Put the gold bug through
the left eye-hole of that skull.
Then lower the bug on the string
all the way down here.”
Legrand said to me, “We dig at the spot where
the gold bug hits the ground. That’s where
Captain Kidd’s treasure chest is buried.”
31
Little by little, the gold bug came down out of the tree.
When it hit the ground, Legrand said, “Come down
from the tree, Jupiter. We need to start digging.”
The three of us
began to dig.
After an hour,
the shovels
hit something
that was made
out of wood.
Wolf barked
and jumped
into the hole.
32
We held up our lanterns and looked down.
We saw human skeletons in the hole.
Jupiter let out a little cry.
“Who were those people?” I asked.
“They were the pirates who buried
Captain Kidd’s treasure,” said Legrand.
“Captain Kidd killed them so that no one
would know about the treasure chest.”
33
Legrand pushed the bones off to the side.
We opened the huge chest. It was full of
gold coins and gold rings and gold bowls.
We were suddenly very rich.
34
We thought that the treasure
must be worth more than
a million dollars. Legrand
started laughing and shouting.
“You can thank the gold bug
for this!” he yelled.
If you want to know how much treasure
we found, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell
you because we’re still counting it all!
The End
35
About the Start-to-Finish Author
Richard Ganci has lived his entire life in the
San Francisco bay area. He is an artist
and a writer. As an artist he paints in
an abstract style. He is well known for a series
of paintings he completed using brown paper
bags for his canvas. As a writer he has
published poetry, stories for children
and stories for young adults. One story, Fish,
was made into a short movie. Richard loves
to read and to grow his vocabulary. Whenever
he reads, he keeps a dictionary close at hand.
36
About the Start-to-Finish Author
Jerry Stemach, M.S., is a language, literacy,
and technology specialist who serves students
with language-based reading disorders.
Jerry and Don Johnston, M.S., co-founded
Start-to-Finish Publishing where Jerry is an
author and editor. Jerry and his wife, Beverly,
make their home in Sonoma County, California.
37
About the Original Author
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809.
His parents both died when he was a small
child. After that, he lived with a rich family,
but he always had a troubled and sad life.
He was kicked out of college twice and his wife
died when she was 24 years old. Poe also drank
too much alcohol and probably used a drug
called opium. One day, when he was only
40 years old, he was found lying in a gutter
in the city of Baltimore. He died the next day.
People did not think Poe was special when
he was alive, but today, people see him
as a great writer with a brilliant imagination.
He is known as the inventor of the detective
story and as a master of horror tales and poetry.
39
