please,â said Jack. He slipped his notebook and pencil out of his bag. It wasthe first time heâd had a chance to take notes all day. He wrote:
Then he looked up at Squanto and nodded.
âDig holes and put two rotting fish in each hole,â said Squanto.
âRotting fish?â
said Annie, making a face.
âYes, rotting fish is good food for the soil,â said Squanto. âOn top of the fish, place four corn seeds. Then cover them with dirt.â
Jack quickly wrote:
âGot it,â he said, looking up.
âI give you these corn seeds to takehome,â said Squanto. He held up a small pouch.
âThanks,â said Annie, taking the pouch.
âThanks a lot,â said Jack. âWell, good-bye.â Jack was eager to get goingâbefore Squanto could ask them questions about the past.
âWait, I have a question,â said Annie. âSquanto, why did you say you remembered us?â
Squantoâs dark eyes twinkled. âI did not say I remembered
you,
â he said. âI only said
I remember
.â
âWhat did you remember?â asked Annie.
âI remembered what it was like to be from a different world,â said Squanto. âLong ago, I lived with my people on this shore. But one day, men came in ships. They took me toEurope as a slave. In that new land, I was a stranger. I felt different and afraid. I saw the same fear in your eyes today. So I tried to help you.â
Annie smiled. âWe thank thee,â she said.
âAnd now
you
must always be kind to those who feel different and afraid,â said Squanto. âRemember what you felt today.â
âIndeed,â said Jack.
Before closing his notebook, he added one last thing:
Squanto bowed.
âGood day, Jack and Annie,â he said.
âGood day!â they said.
Squanto turned and headed back to the village. The sun was setting. All of Plymouth was lit with a fiery light.
âIt really was a good day,â said Annie.
âYeah, it was,â said Jack.
Annie sighed. âReady to go home?â she asked.
âIndeed,â Jack said.
They started running through the woods.Their feet crunched through the red and yellow leaves. They scrambled up the rope ladder into the tree house.
From the distance came the sounds of the Pilgrims singing a hymn and the Wampanoag beating their drums. Annie picked up the Pennsylvania book. She pointed at a picture of the Frog Creek woods.
âI wish we could go home!â she said.
âGood-bye, Priscilla!â Jack called.
âGood-bye, Squanto!â said Annie. âGood-bye, everyone!â
The wind started to blow.
The wind blew harder.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.
Jack opened his eyes. He sighed. They were wearing their own clothes again. His leather bag was a backpack.
Sunlight slanted through the tree house window. As always, no time at all had passed in Frog Creek.
âHome,â said Annie. She held up the pouch of corn seeds. âProof for Morgan we found a special magic.â
âThe magic of community,â said Jack.
Annie placed the pouch on the floorânext to the scrolls from Shakespeare and the twig from the gorillas of the cloud forest.
âLetâs go,â she said.
Jack took the research book out of his pack. He left it under the window. Then they climbed down the rope ladder.
As they started through the woods, a warm wind blew, rattling the leaves. Jack felt happy. He was looking forward to visiting their grandmother today and seeing their cousins and aunts and uncles.
âYou know, Pilgrim kids had a really hard life,â said Annie.
âYeah. They did as much work as the grown-ups,â said Jack. âMaybe more.â
âWorst of all, lots of their friends and family members died,â said Annie.
âYeah,â said Jack.
Both were silent for a