A Crazy Day with Cobras (9 page)

“I’m glad it’s not boiling hot here,” said Jack.

“It feels good,” said Annie. “You’ve still got the emerald rose, right?”

Jack looked in his backpack. “Got it,” he said. He pulled out their note, their research book, and the blue bottle, and he left them in the corner of the tree house.

Then Jack took out the sparkling stone and held it up to the afternoon light. “This is for you, Penny,” Jack said. “We’ll take this home and keep it safe until we see Teddy and Kathleen again.”

“Good,” said Annie.

Jack carefully put the emerald rose back into his backpack. Then he looked at Annie. “Home,” he said.

Jack and Annie climbed down the rope ladder. As they walked through the Frog Creek woods, Annie was unusually quiet.

“What’s on your mind?” Jack asked.

“Well, I was just thinking that it’s really cool that emeralds stand for love,” said Annie. “Love was the reason for every big thing that happened today.”

“How do you mean?” said Jack. He thought their day had been crazy.

“Well, we went on our mission because Merlin—and everyone else in Camelot—loves Penny,” said Annie, “and we love her, too.”

“Right …,” said Jack.

“And the Great Mogul gave us Morning Breeze because I loved her,” said Annie.

“Right,” said Jack.

“And Morning Breeze took us into the wild because she loved her baby,” said Annie.

“Right,” said Jack.

“And we ran into trouble with the cobras because they loved their babies-to-be,” said Annie.

“Yeah …,” said Jack. “Okay.”

“And finally, the Great Mogul showed us the Taj Mahal, which is the most amazing building we’ve ever seen, and he built it because he loved his wife,” said Annie.

“Yeah,” said Jack. “You’re right.” Annie made it all sound so simple.

“And now I would love to go home,” said Annie.

“Me too,” said Jack.

“Hey, we can tell Mom and Dad you got an A plus on your story,” said Annie. “We’ll print it out again.”

“Yeah, and I made copies of your artwork,” said Jack. “Except the sparkles don’t really show.”

“That’s okay,” said Annie. “The sparkles aren’t that important.”

“Right,” said Jack. “It’s the heart that counts.” And the two of them left the Frog Creek woods and headed home under the cloudless May sky.

Taj Mahal

Shah Jahãn, the Great Mogul whose name means “king of the world,” ruled the Mogul Empire of India from 1628 to 1658. Shah Jahãn was a ruthless king, but he was also a supporter of writing, painting, and astonishing architecture. And he left behind many buildings, mosques, and beautiful gardens.

Shah Jahãn’s favorite wife was Mumtãz Mahal, who bore him fourteen children. After she died, he built a mausoleum, or large tomb, in her memory. The mausoleum was called the Taj Mahal, which means “crown palace.”

It took over twenty years to finish the Taj
Mahal. Twenty thousand men from all over the Mogul Empire worked on it, using small hand tools to split the marble stone. Artisans set precious gems into the marble to make flowers. A court poet wrote:

A Russian visitor in the late 1800s wrote that the flowers looked so natural that you wanted to touch them to make sure they weren’t real. He said that “every leaf, every petal is a separate emerald, pearl or topaz” (Diana and Michael Preston in
Taj Mahal
, p. 190).

Asian Elephants

There are two different kinds of elephants: Asian and African. Asian elephants have smaller ears than African elephants, their skin is not quite as wrinkly, and their backs are dome-shaped. Both
species are endangered because their habitats are shrinking and poachers are illegally hunting them for the ivory in their tusks.

An Asian elephant uses its trunk not only to smell, but also to drink water and to wipe its eyes, as well as to play and grapple with other elephants. And it uses the trunk as a sort of finger that can coil around food and lift it up to the elephant’s mouth.

King Cobras

King cobras, the largest venomous snakes in the world, can be eighteen feet long. A king cobra can lift up to one-third of its body into the air—which means that an eighteen-foot-long cobra can rise six feet off the ground!

Coming August 2011

Don’t
miss Magic Tree House
®
#46
(A Merlin Mission)
Dogs in the Dead of Night

Jack and Annie go on a rescue mission in the Swiss Alps!

Guess what?
Jack and Annie have a musical CD!

For more information about
MAGIC TREE HOUSE: THE MUSICAL

(including how to order the CD!),

visit
mthmusical.com
.

Discover the facts behind the fiction with the

Magic Tree House® Books

Merlin Missions