Jack opened his eyes. Sunlight streamed through hiswindow.
'Tuesday!" he whispered. Morgan's note had toldhim and Annie to come back to the magic tree houseon Tuesday. He could hardly wait to find out whereshe was sending them today!
Jack scrambled out of bed. He threw on his clothes.
He packed his notebook and pencil into his backpack.
Then he headed into the hall.
Jack bumped into Annie. She was dressed in jeansand a T-shirt.
"Tuesday!" they both whispered.
Together, they hurried down the stairs.
"Mom, Dad, we're going out for a few minutes!"Jack shouted.
"Don't you want breakfast first?" his dad calledfrom the kitchen.
"When we get back!" said Annie.
They rushed out the front door. They ran downtheir street in the bright summer sun-light.
A warm wind gently shook the trees as Jack andAnnie headed into the Frog Creek woods. Soon theycame to the tallest tree in the woods. The magic treehouse waited for them in the high branches. Jack andAnnie grabbed the rope ladder and climbed up.
Inside the shady tree house, the note from Morganwas still on the floor:
Dear Jack and Annie,Camelot is in trouble. To save the kingdom, pleasefind these four special kinds of writing for my library:
Something to followSomething to sendSomething to learnSomething to lendThank you,Morgan"Okay," said Jack. "We have the first writing:
something to follow." He picked up a list from theCivil War.
"And we have the second," said Annie, "somethingto send." She picked up a letter from theRevolutionary War.
"Now we need the third," said Jack, "something tolearn.""No problem," said Annie. She grabbed a book lyingin the corner. "I hope we're not going to another war."Jack and Annie looked at the cover. It showed afield of tall green grass.
The title was Life on the Prairie.
"The prairie?" said Annie. "We already went to theprairie the time we met Black Hawk.""Yeah," said Jack, remembering their adventurewith the Native American boy.
He opened the book and turned to a picture of anold-fashioned train crossing the prairie.
"Oh," he said. "I get it. Trains crossed the prairieafter the pioneers came. When we went to the prairiebefore, Native Americans were the only people wholived there.""So we must be going to pioneer time," said Annie.
"I think so," said Jack.
He pointed at the picture that showed the traincrossing the prairie.
"I wish we could go there," he said.
The breeze picked up.
The wind started to blow.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still. |