Mummies in the Morning Read online

  Here’s what kids have to say to

  Mary Pope Osborne, author of

  the Magic Tree House series:

  WOW! You have an imagination like no other.—Adam W.

  I love your books. If you stop writing books, it will be like losing a best friend.—Ben M.

  I think you are the real Morgan le Fay. There is always magic in your books.—Erica Y.

  One day I was really bored and I didn’t want to read … I looked in your book. I read a sentence, and it was interesting. So I read some more, until the book was done. It was so good I read more and more. Then I had read all of your books, and now I hope you write lots more.—Danai K.

  I always read [your books] over and over … 1 time, 2 times, 3 times, 4 times … —Yuan C.

  You are my best author in the world. I love your books. I read all the time. I read everywhere. My mom is like freaking out.—Ellen C.

  I hope you make these books for all yours and mine’s life.—Riki H.

  Teachers and librarians love

  Magic Tree House® books, too!

  Thank you for opening faraway places and times to my class through your books. They have given me the chance to bring in additional books, materials, and videos to share with the class.—J. Cameron

  It excites me to see how involved [my fourth-grade reading class] is in your books … I would do anything to get my students more involved, and this has done it.—C. Rutz

  I discovered your books last year … WOW! Our students have gone crazy over them. I can’t order enough copies! … Thanks for contributing so much to children’s literature!—C. Kendziora

  I first came across your Magic Tree House series when my son brought one home … I have since introduced this great series to my class. They have absolutely fallen in love with these books! … My students are now asking me for more independent reading time to read them. Your stories have inspired even my most struggling readers.—M. Payne

  I love how I can go beyond the [Magic Tree House] books and use them as springboards for other learning.—R. Gale

  We have enjoyed your books all year long. We check your Web site to find new information. We pull our map down to find the areas where the adventures take place. My class always chimes in at key parts of the story. It feels good to hear my students ask for a book and cheer when a new book comes out.—J. Korinek

  Our students have “Magic Tree House fever.” I can’t keep your books on the library shelf.—J. Rafferty

  Your books truly invite children into the pleasure of reading. Thanks for such terrific work.—S. Smith

  The children in the fourth grade even hide the [Magic Tree House] books in the library so that they will be able to find them when they are ready to check them out.—K. Mortensen

  My Magic Tree House books are never on the bookshelf because they are always being read by my students. Thank you for creating such a wonderful series.—K. Mahoney

  Text copyright © 1993 by Mary Pope Osborne.

  Illustrations copyright © 1993 by Sal Murdocca.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Osborne, Mary Pope. Mummies in the morning /

  by Mary Pope Osborne; illustrated by Sal Murdocca. p. cm. — (The magic tree house series; #3) “A First Stepping Stone book.”

  SUMMARY: Jack and his younger sister take a trip in their tree house back to ancient Egypt, where they help a queen’s mummy continue her voyage to the Next Life.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89420-6

  [1. Time travel—Fiction. 2. Mummies—Fiction.

  3. Magic—Fiction. 4. Tree houses—Fiction.]

  I. Title. II. Series: Osborne, Mary Pope. Tree house series; #3.

  PZ7. O81167Mr 1993 [Fic]—dc20 92-50665

  Random House New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, Auckland

  v3.0

  For Patrick Robbins, who loves ancient Egypt

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1. Meow!

  2. Oh, Man. Mummies!

  3. It’s Alive!

  4. Back from the Dead

  5. The Ghost-Queen

  6. The Writing on the Wall

  7. The Scroll

  8. The Mummy

  9. Follow the Leader

  10. Another Clue

  Special Preview of Magic Tree House #4: Pirates Past Noon

  “It’s still here,” said Jack.

  “It looks empty,” said Annie.

  Jack and his seven-year-old sister gazed up at a very tall oak tree. At the top of the tree was a tree house.

  Late-morning sunlight lit the woods. It was almost time for lunch.

  “Shhh!” said Jack. “What was that noise?”

  “What noise?”

  “I heard a noise,” Jack said. He looked around. “It sounded like someone coughing.”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” said Annie. “Come on. Let’s go up.”

  She grabbed onto the rope ladder and started climbing.

  Jack tiptoed over to a clump of bushes. He pushed aside a small branch.

  “Hello?” he said. “Anybody there?”

  There was no answer.

  “Come on!” Annie called down. “The tree house looks the same as it did yesterday.”

  Jack still felt that someone was nearby. Could it be the person who’d put all the books in the tree house?

  “Ja-ack!”

  Jack gazed over the top of the bushes.

  Was the mysterious person watching him now? The person whose name began with M?

  Maybe M wanted the gold medallion back. The one Jack had found on their dinosaur adventure. Maybe M wanted the leather bookmark back. The one from the castle book.

  There was an M on the medallion. And an M on the bookmark. But what did M stand for?

  “Tomorrow I’ll bring everything back,” Jack said loudly.

  A breeze swept through the woods. The leaves rattled.

  “Come on!” called Annie.

  Jack went back to the big oak tree. He grabbed onto the rope ladder and climbed up.

  At the top he crawled through a hole in the wooden floor. He tossed down his backpack and pushed his glasses into place.

  “Hmmm. Which book is it going to be today?” said Annie.

  She was looking at the books scattered around the tree house.

  Annie picked up the book about castles.

  “Hey, this isn’t wet anymore,” she said.

  “Let me see.”

  Jack took the book from her. He was amazed. It looked fine. Yesterday it had gotten soaked in a castle moat.

  The castle book had taken Jack and Annie back to the time of knights.

  Jack silently thanked the mysterious knight who had rescued them.

  “Watch out!” warned Annie.

  She waved a dinosaur book in Jack’s face.

  “Put that away,” said Jack.

  The day before yesterday the dinosaur book had taken them to the time of dinosaurs.

  Jack silently thanked the Pteranodon who had saved him from a Tyrannosaurus rex.

  Annie put the dinosaur book back with the other books. Then she gasped.

  “Wow,” she whispered. “Look at this.”

  She held up a book about ancient Egypt.

  Jack caught his breath. He took the book from her. A green silk bookmark stuck out of it.

  Jack turned to the page with the bookmark. There was a picture of a pyramid.

  Going toward the pyramid was a l
ong parade. Four huge cows with horns were pulling a sled. On the sled was a long gold box. Many Egyptians were walking behind the sled. At the end of the parade was a sleek black cat.

  “Let’s go there,” whispered Annie. “Now.”

  “Wait,” said Jack. He wanted to study the book a bit more.

  “Pyramids, Jack,” said Annie. “You love pyramids.”

  It was true. Pyramids were high on his list of favorite things. After knights. But before dinosaurs. Way before dinosaurs.

  He didn’t have to worry about being eaten by a pyramid.

  “Okay,” he said. “But hold the Pennsylvania book. In case we want to come right back here.”

  Annie found the book with the picture of their hometown in it. Frog Creek, Pennsylvania.

  Then Jack pointed to the pyramid picture in the Egypt book. He cleared his throat and said, “I wish we could go to this place.”

  “Meow!”

  “What was that?” Jack looked out the tree house window.

  A black cat was perched on a branch. Right outside the window. The cat was staring at Jack and Annie.

  It was the strangest cat Jack had ever seen. He was very sleek and dark. With bright yellow eyes. And a wide gold collar.

  “It’s the cat in the Egypt book,” whispered Annie.

  Just then the wind started to blow. The leaves began to shake.

  “Here we go!” cried Annie.

  The wind whistled louder. The leaves shook harder.

  Jack closed his eyes as the tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster! And faster!

  Suddenly everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

  Not a sound. Not a whisper.

  Jack opened his eyes.

  Hot bright sunlight nearly blinded him.

  “Me-ow!”

  Jack and Annie looked out the window.

  The tree house was perched on the top of a palm tree. The tree stood with other palm trees. A patch of green surrounded by a sandy desert.

  “Meow!”

  Jack and Annie looked down.

  The black cat was sitting at the base of the tree. His yellow eyes were staring up at Jack and Annie.

  “Hi!” Annie shouted.

  “Shhh,” said Jack. “Someone might hear you.”

  “In the middle of the desert?” said Annie.

  The black cat stood and began walking around the tree.

  “Come back!” Annie called. She leaned out the window to see where the cat was going.

  “Oh, wow!” she said. “Look, Jack.”

  Jack leaned forward and looked down.

  The cat was running away from the palm trees. Toward a giant pyramid in the desert.

  A parade was going toward the pyramid. The same parade as in the Egypt book.

  “It’s the picture from the book!” said Jack.

  “What are those people doing?” asked Annie.

  Jack looked down at the Egypt book. He read the words under the picture:

  When a royal person died, a grand funeral procession took place. Family, servants, and mourners followed the coffin. The coffin was called a sarcophagus. It was pulled on a sled by four oxen.

  “It’s an Egyptian funeral,” said Jack. “The box is called a sar … sar … sar … oh, forget it.”

  He looked out the window again.

  Oxen, sled, Egyptians, black cat. All were moving in a slow, dreamy way.

  “I’d better make some notes about this,” said Jack.

  He reached into his backpack and pulled out his notebook. Jack always kept notes.

  “Wait,” said Jack. And he wrote:

  “We’d better hurry,” said Annie, “if we want to see the mummy.”

  She started down the rope ladder.

  Jack looked up from his notebook.

  “Mummy?” he said.

  “There’s probably a mummy in that gold box,” Annie called up. “We’re in ancient Egypt. Remember?”

  Jack loved mummies. He put down his pencil.

  “Good-bye, Jack!” called Annie.

  “Wait!” Jack called.

  “Mummies!” Annie shouted.

  “Oh, man,” said Jack weakly. “Mummies!” She sure knew how to get to him.

  Jack shoved his notebook and the Egypt book into his pack. Then he started down the ladder.

  When he got to the ground, he and Annie took off across the sand.

  But as they ran a strange thing happened.

  The closer they got to the parade, the harder it was to see it.

  Then suddenly it was gone. The strange parade had disappeared. Vanished.

  But the great stone pyramid was still there. Towering above them.

  Panting, Jack looked around.

  What had happened? Where were the people? The oxen? The gold box? The cat?

  “They’re gone,” said Annie.

  “Where did they go?” said Jack.

  “Maybe they were ghosts,” said Annie.

  “Don’t be silly. There’s no such thing as ghosts,” said Jack. “It must have been a mirage.”

  “A what?”

  “Mirage. It happens in the desert all the time,” said Jack. “It looks like something’s there. But it just turns out to be the sunlight reflecting through heat.”

  “How could sunlight look like people, a mummy box, and a bunch of cows?” said Annie.

  Jack frowned.

  “Ghosts,” she said.

  “No way,” said Jack.

  “Look!” Annie pointed at the pyramid. Near the base was the sleek black cat.

  He was standing alone. He was staring at Jack and Annie.

  “He’s no mirage,” said Annie.

  The cat started to slink away. He walked along the base of the pyramid and slid around a corner.

  “Where’s he going?” said Jack.

  “Let’s find out,” said Annie.

  They dashed around the corner—just in time to see the cat disappear through a hole in the pyramid.

  “Where did he go?” said Jack.

  He and Annie peeked through the hole.

  They saw a long hallway. Burning torches lit the walls. Dark shadows loomed.

  “Let’s go in,” said Annie.

  “Wait,” said Jack.

  He pulled out the Egypt book and turned to the section on pyramids.

  He read the caption aloud:

  Pyramids were sometimes called Houses of the Dead. They were nearly all solid stone, except for the burial chambers deep inside.

  “Wow. Let’s go there. To the burial chambers,” said Annie. “I bet a mummy’s there.”

  Jack took a deep breath.

  Then he stepped out of the hot, bright sunlight into the cool, dark pyramid.

  The hallway was silent.

  Floor, ceiling, walls—everything was stone.

  The floor slanted up from where they stood.

  “We have to go farther inside,” said Annie.

  “Right,” said Jack. “But stay close behind me. Don’t talk. Don’t—”

  “Go! Just go!” said Annie. She gave him a little push.

  Jack started up the slanting floor of the hallway.

  Where was the cat?

  The hallway went on and on.

  “Wait,” said Jack. “I want to look at the book.”

  He opened the Egypt book again. He held it below a torch on the wall. The book showed a picture of the inside of the pyramid.

  “The burial chamber is in the middle of the pyramid. See?” Jack said. He pointed to the picture. “It seems to be straight ahead.”

  Jack tucked the book under his arm. Then they headed deeper into the pyramid.

  Soon the floor became flat. The air felt different. Musty and stale.

  Jack opened the book again. “I think we’re almost at the burial chamber. See the picture? The hallway slants up. Then it gets flat. Then you come to the chamber. See, look—”

  “Eee-eee!” A strange cry shot through the p
yramid.

  Jack dropped the Egypt book.

  Out of the shadows flew a white figure.

  It swooshed toward them!

  A mummy!

  “It’s alive!” Annie shouted.

  Jack pulled Annie down.

  The white figure moved swiftly past them. Then disappeared into the shadows.

  “A mummy,” said Annie. “Back from the dead!”

  “F-forget it,” stammered Jack. “Mummies aren’t alive.” He picked up the Egypt book.

  “What’s this?” said Annie. She lifted something from the floor. “Look. The mummy dropped this thing.”

  It was a gold stick. About a foot long. A dog’s head was carved on one end.

  “It looks like a scepter,” said Jack.

  “What’s that?” asked Annie.

  “It’s a thing kings and queens carry,” said Jack. “It means they have power over the people.”

  “Come back, mummy!” Annie called. “We found your scepter. Come back! We want to help you!”

  “Shush!” said Jack. “Are you nuts?”

  “But the mummy—”

  “That was no mummy,” said Jack. “It was a person. A real person.”

  “What kind of person would be inside a pyramid?” asked Annie.

  “I don’t know,” said Jack. “Maybe the book can help us.”

  He flipped through the book. At last he found a picture of a person in a pyramid. He read:

  Tomb robbers often carried off the treasure buried with mummies. False passages were sometimes built to stop the robbers.

  Jack closed the book.

  “No live mummy,” he said. “Just a tomb robber.”

  “Yikes. A tomb robber?” said Annie.

  “Yeah, a robber who steals stuff from tombs.”

  “But what if the robber comes back,” said Annie. “We’d better leave.”

  “Right,” said Jack. “But first I want to write something down.”

  He put the Egypt book into his pack. He pulled out his notebook and pencil.

  He started writing in his notebook:

  “Jack—” said Annie.

  “Just a second,” said Jack. He kept writing:

  “Jack! Look!” said Annie.

  Jack felt a whoosh of cold air. He looked up. A wave of terror went through him.