Buffalo Before Breakfast
Page 3
Black Hawk laughed.
“People cannot own land,” he said. “The land belongs to the Great Spirit.”
Jack wrote in his notebook:
“What about school?” said Jack. “Don’t you have to go to school?”
“What is school?” Black Hawk said.
“It’s a place where kids go to learn things,” Jack explained.
Black Hawk laughed again.
“There is not only one place to learn,” he said. “In camp we learn to make clothes, tools, and tepees. On the plains we learn to ride and hunt. We look at the sky and learn courage from the eagle.”
Jack wrote:
Grandmother turned to Jack and Annie.
“Will you walk with us toward the sunset?” she asked.
Jack shook his head.
“We have to go the other way,” he said, “toward the sunrise.”
“Thank you for the eagle’s feather,” said Annie.
“Let your thoughts rise as high as that feather,” said Grandmother. “It is good medicine.”
“What does that mean?” Jack asked. “Good medicine?”
“Good medicine connects you to the world of the spirits,” she said.
Jack nodded. But he still didn’t really understand.
“Good-bye, Buffalo Girl and Rides-Like-Wind,” said Grandmother. “We wish you a safe journey.”
Jack and Annie waved. Then they started walking back the way they’d come.
Teddy ran ahead of them.
At the top of the rise, they looked back.
Grandmother, Black Hawk, and the rest of the tribe were watching.
Jack and Annie both held up two fingers for “friend.” Then they took off down the slope.
They ran across the prairie … through the tall, whispering grass … all the way back to the tree house.
Annie put Teddy in the leather bag. She and Jack climbed up the rope ladder.
They looked out the window one last time. The ocean of grass was golden in the early sunlight.
By now, the Lakota are walking west, Jack thought.
“Soon everything will change,” he said sadly. “The buffalo will vanish. The old way of life for the Lakota will vanish, too.”
“But the Great Spirit won’t ever vanish,” said Annie. “It will always take care of Black Hawk’s people.”
Jack smiled. Annie’s words made him feel better.
Arf, arf! Teddy barked, as if to say Let’s go!
“Okay, okay,” said Jack.
He picked up the Pennsylvania book and pointed at a picture of Frog Creek.
“I wish we could go home to our people,” he said.
The wind started to blow.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.
“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.”
“Hmm … ” said Jack. He stared at the little dog.
Teddy tilted his head and gave Jack a wise look.
“Well … ” 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 woods … up their street … 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 calf—one 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 © 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
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.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.
But only for a moment …
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#1: DINOSAURS BEFORE DARK
#2: THE KNIGHT AT DAWN
#3: MUMMIES IN THE MORNING
#4: PIRATES PAST NOON
#5: NIGHT OF THE NINJAS
#6: AFTERNOON ON THE AMAZON
#7: SUNSET OF THE SABERTOOTH
#8: MIDNIGHT ON THE MOON
#9: DOLPHINS AT DAYBREAK
#10: GHOST TOWN AT SUNDOWN
#11: LIONS AT LUNCHTIME
#12: POLAR BEARS PAST BEDTIME
#13: VACATION UNDER THE VOLCANO
#14: DAY OF THE DRAGON KING
#15: VIKING SHIPS AT SUNRISE
#16: HOUR OF THE OLYMPICS
#17: TONIGHT ON THE TITANIC
#18: BUFFALO BEFORE BREAKFAST
#19: TIGERS AT TWILIGHT
#20: DINGOES AT DINNERTIME
#21: CIVIL WAR ON SUNDAY
#22: REVOLUTIONARY WAR ON WEDNESDAY
#23: TWISTER ON TUESDAY
#24: EARTHQUAKE IN THE EARLY MORNING
#25: STAGE FRIGHT ON A SUMMER NIGHT
#26: GOOD MORNING, GORILLAS
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#28: HIGH TIDE IN HAWAII
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#29: CHRISTMAS IN CAMELOT
#30: HAUNTED CASTLE ON HALLOWS EVE
#31: SUMMER OF THE SEA SERPENT
#32: WINTER OF THE ICE WIZARD
#33: CARNIVAL AT CANDLELIGHT
#34: SEASON OF THE SANDSTORMS
#35: NIGHT OF THE NEW MAGICIANS
#36: BLIZZARD OF THE BLUE MOON
#37: DRAGON OF THE RED DAWN
#38: MONDAY WITH A MAD GENIUS
#39: DARK DAY IN THE DEEP SEA
#40: EVE OF THE EMPEROR PENGUIN
#41: MOONLIGHT ON THE MAGIC FLUTE
#42: A GOOD NIGHT FOR GHOSTS
#43: LEPRECHAUN IN LATE WINTER
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