Jack and Annie were sitting on their porch, readingbooks. Jack was reading about gorillas. Annie wasreading about Pilgrims.
Suddenly Annie closed her book. She looked up intothe sunset.
"Hey!" Annie said with a smile.
Jack looked over at her.
"Its back!" she said, jumping up.
"Oh, man," breathed Jack. He knew she was talkingabout the magic tree house.
Annie could always tell when it was back. Jackclosed his book and stood up.
"We're going to the woods!" he called through thescreen door. "There's something we have to checkon!""Be back before dark!" their mom said.
"We will!" said Jack.
He picked up his backpack. Then he and Annieheaded across the yard. When they got to thesidewalk, they started running. They ran up theirstreet and into the Frog Creek woods.
In the last light of day, they hurried between thetrees. Finally, they came to the tallest oak. They heldtheir breath as they looked up.
The magic tree house was back.
"Good going," said Jack.
"Thanks!" said Annie.
She started up the ladder. Jack followed. It wasnearly dark inside. But the sun-dried wood smelledlike a summer day.
"What kind of special magic will we look for thistime?" said Jack.
They glanced around the tree house. They saw thescrolls they'd brought back from Shakespeare'stheater. They saw the twig from the mountaingorillas and the pouch of corn seeds from the firstThanksgiving.
"There!" said Annie. She pointed to a book in thecorner. A piece of paper was sticking out of it.
Jack picked up the book. Then he pulled out thepaper and read:
Dear Jack and Annie,Good luck on your fourth journey to find a specialmagic. This secret rhyme will guide you:
To find a special magic, build a special kind of shipthat rides the waves, both high and low, on everykind of trip.
Thank you, MorganJack looked at Annie. "A ship?" he said.
She shrugged. "Yep. I guess we have to build a ship.
Where do we go to build it?"She and Jack looked at the book's cover. It showedpalm trees, a beach, and a beautiful ocean. The titlewas:
A VISIT TO OLD HAWAII"Oh, wow!" said Annie. "I love Hawaii!""How do you know you love it?" Jack asked. "We'venever been to Hawaii?""Well, we're going now!" said Annie. She pointed atthe cover. "We wish we could go there!"The wind started to blow.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still. |