The emperor gestured to a warrior standing beside a beautiful white horse. The horse had a red blanket draped over its back.
The warrior led the horse to Jack and Annie and helped them climb on. Jack took the reins.
Emperor Aurelius mounted his black horse.
As both horses started toward the gate, Jack gripped the reins and Annie held on to Jack. The white horse carried them down the main road past the armory, past the rows of barracks, and out through the front gate of the Roman legion camp.
Not far from the Danube River, the emperor dismounted. He helped Jack and Annie down from the white horse.
“Thank you for letting me carry the eagle, my Lord Aurelius,” said Annie.
“You need not call me that outside the camp,” said the emperor. “You may call me Marcus.”
“Thanks for helping us, Marcus,” said Jack.
“You’re welcome,” said Marcus. “I hope you learned about the Roman Legion today.”
“We did,” said Jack.
“You guys are amazing,” said Annie. “We wrote a lot in our journals.”
The emperor smiled. “Good,” he said. “I tell few people this, but I myself keep a journal.”
“Really?” Annie said. “What sort of things do you write?”
Marcus paused for a moment. “Perhaps I will share some of my thoughts with you,” he said. He pulled his journal from a saddlebag. He read:
Dwell on the beauty of life.
Watch the stars, and see yourself
running with them.
“It sounds like poetry,” said Jack.
“I love it,” said Annie.
“Then perhaps you will like this, too,” said Marcus. “I have begun a list of small things that have a special beauty for me.” He read from his journal again:
fresh bread
ripe figs
wheat bending in the field
the face of a lion
the beauty of old age in men and women
the smell of wood smoke
Marcus looked at them almost shyly.
“That’s an amazing list, Marcus,” said Jack.
“A beautiful list,” said Annie.
“Thank you,” said Marcus. He sighed. “I must leave you now and don my emperor disguise again. There are battles still to be won.”
“Good luck, Marcus,” said Jack.
The emperor mounted his black horse. Jack handed him the reins of the white horse.
“Farewell, my friends,” said Marcus. “I bid you safe travels.”
“Thank you,” said Jack.
“You should keep writing, Marcus,” said Annie. “Your journal is really good.”
The emperor smiled again and raised his hand. Then he turned and led the white horse back toward the camp.
“Let’s go,” Jack said to Annie. They hurried to the tree with the hidden tree house.
“Look,” Annie said. She pointed up.
Jack saw the golden eagle perched high on a branch. “Hi, there,” he said. Then he and Annie climbed up the rope ladder. They looked out the window together.
They watched the emperor pass through the front gate into the camp. The eagle cried out from above and flew into the darkening winter sky.
“It’s time for Marcus to be ruler of the Roman Empire again,” said Annie.
“Yup,” said Jack. He took his tablet out of his pack and put it on the floor of the tree house. “Time for us to be Frog Creek kids again.”
“Right,” said Annie. She set her tablet beside Jack’s. “We’ll leave these for Morgan.”
Jack picked up the Pennsylvania book. He pointed to a photo of the Frog Creek woods.
“I wish we could go there!” he said.
The wind started to blow.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.
* * *
“Hail, home!” said Jack.
“Pax,” Annie said with a sigh.
They were wearing their own clothes again. The sun was rising over the woods. Birds were singing.
“I hope Morgan likes our notes,” said Jack, glancing at the tablets on the floor.
“I think she will,” said Annie. “We should head home now and hop back into bed.”
“Yep,” said Jack. “Pretend to wake up when Mom calls us for breakfast.”
“I hope Dad makes blueberry pancakes,” said Annie.
“Best in the world!” said Jack.
“Write it down!” said Annie.
They laughed, then climbed down the rope ladder and started through the woods.
Jack felt a chilly morning breeze. “I’m glad we don’t have to be Roman warriors,” he said.
“Me too,” said Annie. “But you know what’s weird?”
“What?” said Jack. “Besides traveling through time and space in a magic tree house and spending the day in a Roman Legion camp?”
Annie laughed. “No, seriously,” she said. “It’s weird that the most important Roman warrior of that time made a list of small things of beauty.”
“Yeah,” said Jack. “Not what you’d expect.”
“I think that might be the wisdom we were supposed to learn,” said Annie.
“Right,” said Jack.
“So what would you add to the list?” said Annie.
“Oh…maybe like…” Jack looked around. “Sunrays slanting between the trees.”
“Fiddlehead ferns,” said Annie.
“Leaves dancing in the breeze,” said Jack.
“That dove cooing,” said Annie.
“The eyes of an eagle,” said Jack.
They came out of the woods and headed down the sidewalk.
“That black cat hiding in the bushes,” said Annie.
“The Johnsons’ pug on their porch,” said Jack.
“Hi, Pickles!” Annie said in a loud whisper.
“Dandelions growing in a crack in the sidewalk,” said Jack.
When they came to their house, they climbed the steps, crept inside, and tiptoed upstairs.
“See ya,” they whispered to each other, and slipped into their rooms.
Jack changed back into his pajamas. Before he got into bed, he grabbed one of his books about ancient Rome. He looked in the index and found Marcus Aurelius.
He found the right page and read:
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor from 161 to 180. He was a skillful military leader, but he is best known as a deep thinker who sought truth and wisdom. He recorded his private thoughts in a journal called Meditations. The journal of Marcus Aurelius is still read more than 1,800 years after his death.
Below the passage was a quote from Marcus Aurelius:
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love….”
“No problem,” whispered Jack. He smiled as he put the book back on the shelf. He climbed into bed, closed his eyes, and waited for his mom to call him to breakfast.
Pax.
Ramses II is called Ramses the Great because he was a powerful warrior who won many battles for Egypt. He was also a great pharaoh who made the country stronger.
There are paintings of Ramses II wearing a double crown of red and white. The crowns were a symbol that he ruled all of Egypt.
Ramses II led his men into battle wearing a blue crown. There were stories that he also brought his pet lioness along for luck! (Maybe it was an ocelot…. What do you think?)
Ancient Greece had over a thousand city-states. The city-state of Athens was one of the most powerful.
Around 500 BCE, Athens created the first democracy. In a democracy, people ca
n vote. The United States borrowed some ideas for its democracy from Greece.
The Greeks held the first Olympic games almost 3,000 years ago.
Athenians produced wonderful art, buildings, poetry, plays, and stories.
Alexander, the son of King Philip of Macedonia, was one of the greatest warriors ever. He lived over 2,000 years ago. Philip ruled all of Greece. The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of Alexander’s teachers.
Alexander was twenty when he became king in 336 BCE. He set out to conquer more land. For thirteen years, he and his army of about 50,000 soldiers took over lands that stretched from Greece to India. Alexander brought Greek ideas, arts, and customs to all the lands he conquered.
Alexander never lost a single battle, and he became known as Alexander the Great. He named seventy cities after himself and one after his horse Bucephalus (byoo-SEFF-uh-liss)! Alexander died of a fever when he was only thirty-three.
When Julius Caesar was a young man, pirates captured a boat he was on. They asked his family for money to set him free. Caesar laughed at the small amount they wanted. He thought he was worth a lot more. He demanded that the pirates ask for more…and they did!
Caesar bossed the pirates around and made them listen to him practicing speeches and reciting poetry. He joined their games and exercised with them. At night, he told them to stop talking so he could sleep!
When Caesar was freed, he quickly commanded a boat, sailed back, and arrested all the pirates and had them put to death.
Chandragupta lived in northern India over 2,000 years ago. Not much is known about his childhood, but stories say he was raised by peacock tamers!
When he was young, Chandragupta studied with a famous teacher named Chanakya, who taught him many things, including military strategy. After Alexander’s army left India, Chandragupta raised an army and conquered Punjab.
With his large army and as many as 9,000 war elephants, Chandragupta won many more victories. His empire was known as the Mauryan Empire. It covered what is now Pakistan, Afghanistan, and most of India.
When he was an old man, Chandragupta gave up his throne and all of his riches to live as a poor monk.
WILL OSBORNE
is the author of many novels, picture books, story collections, and nonfiction books. Her New York Times number one bestselling Magic Tree House series has been translated into numerous languages around the world. Highly recommended by parents and educators everywhere, the series introduces young readers to different cultures and times in history, as well as to the world’s legacy of ancient myth and storytelling. She and her husband, writer Will Osborne (author of Magic Tree House: The Musical), live in northwestern Connecticut with their three dogs. Ms. Osborne is coauthor of the companion Magic Tree House® Fact Trackers with Will and with her sister, Natalie Pope Boyce.
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