Jack opened his eyes.
He was wearing pants with suspenders and a shirtwith the sleeves rolled up. In place of his backpackwas a leather bag.
Annie was wearing a long dress and a sunbonnet.
"I like my hat," she said. "It'll keep the sun off myface.""Yeah, except the sun's not shining," said JackHe and Annie looked out the window.
The sky was cloudy.
The tree house had landed in a small grove of treesnear a creek. Beyond the trees was a wide, openprairie. Green grass and wild-flowers swayed in achilly wind.
In the distance, a train puffed across the prairie.
Sparks of fire came out of its smoke-stack. Hugeclouds of black smoke billowed into the gray sky.
"Wow," said Jack.
He looked at the picture of the train in their bookand read:
After the Civil War, the U.S. government builtrailroads to link the eastern and western parts of thecountry. By the 1870s, steam engines carried peopleacross the Kansas prairie.
Jack pulled out his notebook and wrote:
1870s trains across Kansas"Let's get going," said Annie. "We have to find thatspecial writing for Morgan."She started down the ladder.
Jack packed his things in his leather bag andclimbed down after her.
When he stepped onto the ground, Jack lookedtoward the west.
The train was gone. Only a thin trail of smokefloated across the sky.
"That train was cool," said Jack.
"Yeah, and so is that," said Annie. She pointed inthe other direction.
Far away, in the distance, a line of covered wagonsrolled through the rippling grass. Their whitecoverings billowed in the breeze.
Jack pulled out the research book. He found apicture of the wagon train. He read aloud:
Wagons were the most common way for families totravel west. They could carry clothes, tools, food, andwater. A line of wagons was called a "wagon train."The white cloth coverings over the wagons also madethem look like sailing ships, or schooners. For thisreason, covered wagons were sometimes called"prairie schooners."Jack looked at the wagons again. They did look likeships sailing across a rippling green sea.
He wrote in his notebook:
Covered wagons = prairie schooners"Let's get a closer look," said Annie. She took offacross the grass.
Jack put away his things and ran after her. As theyran, the wind began to blow harder. The cloudsoverhead grew darker.
"Wait--wait!" Jack finally called to Annie. "We'llnever catch up to it!"They both stopped running. Panting, they watchedthe wagon train vanish over the horizon.
Jack took a deep breath.
"What now?" he said.
They looked around.
All Jack could see was the distant grove of treeswith the tree house.
With the train and wagon train gone, there were nosigns of life anywhere--no pioneer cabins, no NativeAmerican tepees.
"How can we find the special writing?" said Jack.
"There's nothing out here.""Oh yeah?" said Annie. "What's that?"She pointed to a rusty pipe sticking out from the topof a small hill.
Streaming from the pipe was a column of blacksmoke.
"Oh, man," said Jack, "that's definitely a sign oflife."
|