Twister on Tuesday Read online

  It was Jeb.

  “Wait!” the older boy yelled. He had a fierce look on his face. He started running toward them.

  “Oh no,” Jack breathed. Did Jeb still want to fight?

  “Leave us alone!” Annie said angrily.

  “Shh, Annie,” said Jack. “Let’s see what he wants.”

  When Jeb got close to them, he stopped. He looked right at Jack.

  “Why did you come back?” he asked.

  “We wanted to tell you about the storm cellar,” said Jack.

  “How did you know about that cellar?” Jeb said.

  Jack pulled their research book out of his leather bag.

  “We read about it in this book,” he said.

  Jeb stared at the book. Then he sighed.

  “I aim to read someday, too,” he said. “That looks like a good book.”

  Jack didn’t know what to say. He was still afraid of making Jeb mad. So he just nodded.

  “My ma and pa were too poor to go to school,” said Jeb. “They want me to go. But I’m getting started mighty late.”

  “It’s not too late,” said Jack.

  “It’s never too late,” said Annie.

  Jeb narrowed his eyes.

  “If you ever come back through here … ,” he said.

  “Yes … ?” Jack asked carefully. Was Jeb about to threaten him again?

  “Maybe I’ll be able to read that book of yours,” Jeb said.

  Jack sighed and smiled.

  “I know you will,” he said.

  Jeb smiled back. He had a nice smile.

  “Thanks for coming back to rescue us,” he said to both Jack and Annie. “Too bad you can’t stay. I reckon we’d all be good friends if you did.”

  “I reckon we would,” said Annie.

  Jeb nodded. Then he turned and ran back to join the others.

  Suddenly, the sun broke through the clouds. The wildflowers danced in a gentle breeze.

  “Ready?” said Annie.

  Jack just stood there, staring at the sunlit prairie.

  “Jack? Ready to go?” Annie asked.

  In that moment, Jack actually hated to leave. But he nodded slowly and said, “Let’s go.”

  He and Annie took off through the bright, sparkling grass. They ran to the small grove of trees near the creek.

  They climbed up the rope ladder and scrambled into the tree house.

  Annie picked up their Pennsylvania book.

  “I wish we could go there,” she said.

  This time the wind did not start to blow.

  The tree house simply started to spin on its own.

  It spun faster and faster.

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

  Jack opened his eyes.

  Morning light filled the tree house.

  He and Annie were wearing their own clothes again.

  “Home,” said Annie, smiling.

  Jack looked out the window.

  He saw their nice, cozy house in the distance, their lawn, their sidewalk, their paved street.

  “Life here is pretty easy compared to pioneer life,” said Jack.

  “We’re lucky,” said Annie.

  Jack reached into his bag and pulled out the small slate.

  “Our third writing,” he said. He added the poem to the list from the Civil War and the letter from the Revolutionary War.

  “You did just what that poem says you should do,” said Annie.

  “What do you mean?” Jack asked.

  “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” Annie said. “You kept trying to make friends with Jeb. In the end, you did.”

  “I guess you’re right,” said Jack.

  “We have to get only one more special writing for Morgan’s library,” said Annie.

  “I wonder how that will help save Camelot?” said Jack.

  Annie shrugged.

  “It’s a mystery,” she said.

  She and Jack looked around the tree house.

  “Look—” Annie picked up a piece of paper lying in the corner. She read aloud:

  Come back early Wednesday morning.

  “Wednesday? Man, that’s tomorrow!” said Jack.

  “So?” said Annie. She started down the rope ladder.

  “Not much time to recover,” said Jack, pulling on his backpack.

  “Recover from what?” Annie said.

  “The twister,” said Jack.

  “Oh yeah, I’d almost forgotten about that,” said Annie.

  Jack smiled.

  Actually, the nightmare of the twister was fading from his memory, too.

  We must try to hold on to the good memories, Miss Neely had said, and let go of the bad ones.

  The kindness of Will and Kate, making friends with Jeb, the courage of Miss Neely—these memories, Jack thought, he would never forget.

  MORE FACTS ABOUT TWISTERS

  • Twisters, or tornados, are the fastest winds on earth.

  • Twisters can travel at speeds up to 200 miles per hour.

  • The spinning winds act like a giant vacuum cleaner as they move across the earth.

  • Almost 1,000 tornados hit the United States each year.

  MORE FACTS ABOUT

  PIONEER LIFE ON THE PRAIRIE

  From the mid-1800s through the 1880s, thousands of pioneers traveled by wagon across America. Most were headed for the territories of Oregon and California. But a number stopped and settled on the Kansas frontier. They made dugouts and broke up the hard ground to plant crops. These pioneers faced windstorms and dust storms, a shortage of water, and grasshopper plagues. In spite of the hardships, they set up small schools so their children could learn the three R’s: “reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic.” Children of varied ages often learned together. It was not unusual for teachers to be as young as 15 or 16 years old.

  MORE FACTS ABOUT

  PIONEER SCHOOLBOOKS

  The most popular American schoolbooks of the 1880s were called McGuffey Readers. They were put together by a schoolteacher from Ohio named William Holmes McGuffey. Poems such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and “If at First You Don’t Succeed” became part of American life because they were in the McGuffey Readers.

  Webster’s Spelling Book was another sig-nificant reference in early American schools. It taught people who’d come here from all over the world how to spell words in the English language.

  Here’s a special preview of

  Magic Tree House #24

  Earthquake in Early Morning

  Available now!

  Excerpt copyright © 2001 by Mary Pope Osborne

  Published by Random House Children's Books,

  a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Jack sat up in bed. He stared out his window.

  The sky was dark gray. The sun would be rising soon.

  “It’s almost time,” he whispered to himself.

  The day before, in the magic tree house, Morgan’s note had said, “Come back tomorrow, in the early morning.”

  Jack jumped out of bed. He put on his jeans and T-shirt. Then he grabbed his backpack and crept out into the hall.

  Jack peeked into Annie’s room. She wasn’t there. He slipped downstairs and out the front door.

  Annie was sitting on the porch steps. Jack sat down beside her.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “I was waiting for the birds to start singing,” said Annie. “Then I was going to wake you up.”

  Jack and Annie watched the sky go from dark gray to light gray. Then the birds began their song.

  “Tweet-tweet,” said Annie.

  Without another word, Jack and Annie left their porch. They headed up their street to the Frog Creek woods.

  It was cool beneath the trees. Jack and Annie hurried through the woods to the rope ladder. It hung from the tallest oak. At the top of the oak was the magic tree house.

  They climbed up into the t
ree house. It was barely light inside.

  Annie picked up the note lying on the floor. She held it up to the window and read aloud:

  Dear Jack and Annie,

  Camelot is in trouble. To save the kingdom, please find these four special kinds of writing for my library:

  Something to follow

  Something to send

  Something to learn

  Something to lend

  Thank you,

  Morgan

  Jack took a deep breath.

  “Okay,” he said. “We have our first special writing: a list from the Civil War.”

  “We have the second,” said Annie, “a letter from the Revolutionary War.”

  “We have the third,” said Jack, “a poem from a pioneer schoolhouse.”

  “Now we just need one more,” said Annie.

  “I wonder why we have to find these special writings for Morgan’s library,” said Jack. “How are they going to save Camelot?”

  “I don’t know,” said Annie. “But let’s get going so we can solve the mystery. Where’s our research book?”

  They looked around the tree house.

  Their Pennsylvania book, the book that always brought them home, was lying in the corner. Beside it was another book. Annie picked it up.

  “This is it,” she said softly. She showed the book’s cover to Jack. It said:

  SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 1906

  “California?” said Jack. “I’ve always wanted to go to California.”

  “Me too,” said Annie. She laughed. “I guess I told Miss Neely the truth after all.”

  “Yeah,” said Jack, smiling.

  The magic tree house had taken them to a pioneer school in their last adventure. There, Annie had told the teacher, Miss Neely, that they were on their way to California.

  Annie pointed at the cover of the California book.

  “We really wish we could go there,” she said.

  The wind started to blow.

  The tree house started to spin.

  It spun faster and faster.

  Then everything was still.

  Absolutely still.

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  Discover the facts

  behind the fiction with the

  Magic Tree House® Books

  #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

  #27: THANKSGIVING ON THURSDAY

  #28: HIGH TIDE IN HAWAII

  Merlin Missions

  #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

  #44: A GHOST TALE FOR CHRISTMAS TIME

  Magic Tree House® Research Guides

  DINOSAURS

  KNIGHTS AND CASTLES

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  PIRATES

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  DOLPHINS AND SHARKS

  ANCIENT GREECE AND THE OLYMPICS

  AMERICAN REVOLUTION

  SABERTOOTHS AND THE ICE AGE

  PILGRIMS

  ANCIENT ROME AND POMPEII

  TSUNAMIS AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS

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  SEA MONSTERS

  PENGUINS AND ANTARCTICA

  LEONARDO DA VINCI

  GHOSTS

  LEPRECHAUNS AND IRISH FOLKLORE

  RAGS AND RICHES: KIDS IN THE TIME OF CHARLES DICKENS

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