Buffalo Before Breakfast (6 page)

Authors: Mary Pope Osborne

“We're home,” said Annie.

Bright sunlight flooded the tree house. Teddy licked Jack's and Annie's faces. They were back in their jeans and T-shirts.

“Hey, silly,” Annie said to the dog. “Now we have the second thing to help free you from your spell.”

She took the eagle's feather out of Jack's backpack. She put it on Morgan's note, next to the silver pocket watch from the
Titanic
.

“Now we have our gift from the prairie blue,” said Jack. “Let your thoughts rise as high as this feather.”

“Hey, I just had a thought!” said Annie.

“What?” said Jack.

“I bet Teddy had something to do with White Buffalo Woman,” she said.

“Why?” asked Jack.

“One second Teddy disappeared in the grass. Then White Buffalo Woman appeared,” said Annie. “When White Buffalo Woman disappeared, Teddy appeared.”

“HmmÂ â¦Â ” said Jack. He stared at the little dog.

Teddy tilted his head and gave Jack a wise look.

“WellÂ â¦Â ” said Jack, “maybe Teddy has good medicine.”

“
Now
you understand,” said Annie, smiling.

“Ja-ack! An-nie!” A call came from the distance.

Jack and Annie looked out the window of the tree house.

Their mom and their grandmother were standing on their porch.

“Yay, Grandmother's here!” said Annie.

“We're coming!” they shouted together.

“Let's put Teddy in your backpack,” said Annie. “So we can take him home with us this time.”

“Okay,” said Jack.

But when they turned around, the little dog was gone.

“Teddy?” said Annie.

There was no sign of him.

“Oh, man, as soon as we turned our backs, he slipped away,” said Jack. “Just like last time.”

“Don't worry,” said Annie. “He'll find us again soon. I'm sure of it.” She started down the rope ladder.

Jack grabbed his pack and followed.

As they started for home, a wind gusted through the trees.

Jack stopped for a moment to look at the woods.

Branches waved their leaves.

Birds left the branches and swooped up into the blue sky.

Black Hawk's grandmother is right
, he thought.
All things are related
.

“Jack!” called Annie.

“Coming!” said Jack.

He hurried to catch up with her.

Together they ran out of the Frog Creek woodsÂ â¦Â up their streetÂ â¦Â and into their own grandmother's arms.

THE LEGEND OF
WHITE BUFFALO WOMAN

Long ago, when the Lakota had no game to hunt, a beautiful woman in white buckskins appeared. She gave the chief of the tribe a special pipe. It had a buffalo carved on its round bowl and eagle feathers hanging from its long wooden stem.

White Buffalo Woman told the chief that the smoke from the sacred pipe would carry prayers to the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit would answer by helping the Lakota find buffalo to hunt.

White Buffalo Woman also said that the pipe smoke would join all living things to the Lakota tribe.

The pipe bowl represented the earth.

The buffalo carved upon it represented all four-legged animals that live upon the earth.

The pipe's wooden stem represented all that grows on the earth.

The twelve eagle feathers hanging from it represented all the winged creatures.

As White Buffalo Woman walked away from the tribe, she turned into a white buffalo calfâone of the rarest animals of all.

The legend of White Buffalo Woman has been handed down from generation to generation by Lakota people.

MORE FACTS FOR YOU AND JACK

1) The Lakota tribe has also been called the Sioux.

2) Today most Lakota live on reservations in North and South Dakota. (“Reservations” are areas of land reserved for Native Americans by the U.S. government.) Lakota parents and grandparents still pass on the traditional beliefs of their people to their children.

3) The true name of the buffalo is
bison.
Bison came to North America during the Ice Age and at one time were the biggest group of large mammals on the continent.

4) In the 1800s, the U.S. Army was at war with the Native Americans of the plains. They knew the Native American way of life could not survive without the bison. So they decided to kill all the herds. In the years that followed, millions of bison were killed until there were only a few hundred left.

5) In the early 1900s, many people were upset by the killing of the bison. They asked the government to help save these animals. Captive bison were sent to Yellowstone National Park and protected from hunters. Almost 2,500 bison live there today.

Here's a special preview of
Magic Tree House #19
Tigers at Twilight

Available now!

Excerpt copyright Â©
1999
by Mary Pope Osborne.
Published by Random House Children's Books,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Jack and Annie walked past the Frog Creek woods on their way home from the library.

“I miss Teddy,” said Annie.

“Me, too,” said Jack.

“He's a really smart dog,” said Annie.

“Yeah,” said Jack, “and brave.”

“And wise,” said Annie.

“And funny,” said Jack.

“And here!” said Annie.

“What?” said Jack.

“
Here!
” Annie pointed at the Frog Creek woods.

A small dog with tan-colored fur was peeking out from the bushes.

Arf! Arf!
he barked.

“Oh, wow! Teddy!” said Jack.

The little dog ran off into the woods.

“Let's go!” said Annie.

She and Jack raced after Teddy. The Frog Creek woods glowed with late afternoon sunlight.

The dog ran between the trees and finally stopped at a rope ladder. It hung from the tallest oak tree and led up to the magic tree house.

Teddy waited for Jack and Annie to catch up. He panted and wagged his tail.

“Hi, you!” cried Annie. She picked up the little dog and hugged him. “We missed you!”

“Yeah, silly!” said Jack. He kissed Teddy. Teddy licked his face.

“Is it time to get our
third
gift?” asked Annie.

Teddy sneezed, as if to say,
Of course!

Annie grabbed the rope ladder and started up. Jack put Teddy inside his backpack and followed.

They climbed into the tree house. There was the note from Morgan le Fay. It was on the floor, just where it had been two days ago.

Jack let Teddy out of his pack.

Annie picked up the note and read:

This little dog is under a spell and needs your help. To free him, you must be given four special things:

A gift from a ship lost at sea,

A gift from the prairie blue,

A gift from a forest far away,

A gift from a kangaroo.

Be wise. Be brave. Be careful.

Morgan
Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Jack touched the first two gifts, which they had already gotten: a pocket watch from the
Titanic
and an eagle's feather from the Lakota Indians of the Great Plains.

“Now we have to get the gift from a forest far away,” said Annie.

“I wonder
how
far away?” said Jack.

“I know how to find out,” said Annie. “Where's our book?”

She and Jack looked around the tree house for one of the research books that Morgan always left them.

Arf! Arf!
Teddy pawed a book in the corner.

Jack picked it up and read the title:
Wildlife of India
.

“Oh, man. India,” he said. “That's
very
far away.”

“Let's get going,” said Annie, “so we can free Teddy.”

Jack pointed at the cover of the book.

“I wish we could go there,” he said.

The wind started to blow.

The tree house started to spin.