Dingoes at Dinnertime - Mary Pope Osborne [8]
Then something magical happened.
In a flutter of time …
in the spin of a whirlwind …
Teddy was changed.
He was no longer a dog.
He was a boy.
The boy was on the ground on his hands and knees.
“Meet my young helper from Camelot,” said Morgan.
The boy glanced up. He had a friendly freckled face and twinkly dark eyes. His hair was the same color that Teddy’s fur had been. He looked a bit older than Jack, about ten or so.
“Am I back?” he asked.
“You’re back,” said Morgan.
The boy leaped up and hugged her.
“Thank you!” he cried.
“And I hope next time you’ll ask before trying the spells in my spell book,” said Morgan.
The boy grinned sheepishly.
“I promise.” Then he looked at Jack and Annie. “I accidentally changed myself into a dog,” he said.
Annie laughed.
“But at least I got to have exciting adventures as a dog!” he said.
“You were a great dog,” said Annie. “We liked you as Teddy. What’s your real name?”
“If you like, you can keep calling me Teddy,” the boy said. “Or how about Ted?”
“Okay, Ted,” said Annie.
Jack just nodded. He was still in shock.
“Ted is training to work in my library at Camelot,” said Morgan. “He has a rare gift for magic.”
“Cool,” said Annie.
“You—you helped us a lot, Ted,” said Jack, finally finding his voice.
“Oh, no, it was both of you who helped me,” said Ted. “You helped break the spell. And I found new stories to take home.”
“You did?” said Annie.
Ted nodded.
“The story of the Titanic, the story of White Buffalo Woman, the story of the wounded tiger, and the story of the Rainbow Serpent,” he said. “I’ll write them down as soon as I get home. So people can read them in Morgan’s library.”
“And home is where we must go now, I’m afraid,” said Morgan.
“Oh,” said Annie sadly. “That’s too bad.”
“Yeah,” said Jack. He was sad, too.
“I know we will meet again someday,” said Ted.
“I hope so,” said Jack.
“Me, too,” said Annie. “Bye!”
She started down the ladder.
Jack pulled on his pack. With a heavy heart, he followed.
When they got to the ground, they looked up.
Morgan and Ted were at the window. They both seemed to glow in the late afternoon light.
“The magic tree house will return for you soon,” said Morgan. “I promise.”
She waved, and they waved back.
“Good-bye, Jack and Annie,” she said.
“Arf!” said Ted.
In a flutter of time …
in the spin of a whirlwind …
the magic tree house was gone.
For a long moment, Jack and Annie stared at the empty tree.
“Ready for dinner?” Annie asked softly.
Jack nodded.
He felt dazed as they walked silently through the Frog Creek woods.
When they came to their street, the sun was setting. A flock of black birds flew through the silvery pink sky.
Annie broke their silence as they headed for their house.
“We had great adventures with Teddy—I mean Ted—didn’t we?” she said.
“Yeah,” said Jack. “It was like … ” He searched for the right words. “Like … ”
“Like living in Dreamtime,” said Annie.
“Yeah,” said Jack. He smiled.
That was exactly what it was like.
MORE FACTS FOR YOU AND JACK
1) Australia is the world’s smallest and flattest continent. The country of Australia is the only nation in the world to occupy a whole continent. The continent is almost 3 million square miles, or the size of the United States without Alaska and Hawaii.
2) At one time, all the continents on earth were part of one huge land mass. Australia became separated from this mass about 200 million years ago. Because it is a separate continent, its animals have evolved differently from those on other continents.
3) Among the animals that live on Australia are 170 different kinds of marsupials, including koalas, wombats, kangaroos, and wallabies (which are like kangaroos, only smaller). The only marsupials that live outside Australia are opossums.
4) Kangaroos have been in Australia for 25 million years. For every person in Australia, there are ten kangaroos—and there are almost 19 million people in Australia! A kangaroo hops at about 11 mph but can put on bursts of speed of up to 30 mph.
5) Dingoes were used as hunting dogs