Your Backyard Is Wild Read Online Free PDF Page A

spent a whole week camping!”
    “I’ve never been camping,” Gabe said.
    “We’ll have to take you sometime,” replied Benjamin. “Maybe when you come to Florida.” It was another thing he could show his cousin!
    But Gabe had another idea. “How about we camp out in the backyard tonight?” he asked.
    His mother frowned. “I don’t think so, Gabe,” she said. “It’s not safe. . . . And we don’t even have a tent.”
    “But could we go out there after dark?” Benjamin asked. “Just for a little while? If a grown-up is watching us? We can see all kinds of other animals then.”
    Gabe’s mom hesitated for a minute. Then Benjamin’s dad said, “I’ll go with them, Lily. I’ll make sure they’re all right.”
    Aunt Lily smiled. “It’s fine by me, then.”
    “Hooray!” shouted Gabe. He sounded as excited as Benjamin had felt the morning they left home.
     
    The summer was almost over, and the days were getting shorter. Still, it was after 9:00 before the sky was completely dark. The kids followed Mr. Baxter out the basement door. They still had Benjamin’s backpack with them, full of collecting jars and tools for digging. And this time each kid had a flashlight, too.
    The yard looked different in the dark, Benjamin thought. It was full of mysterious shadows and patterns now. Even the sounds were different.
    Benjamin walked down the brick path and knocked over a flowerpot by mistake. His dad put his finger to his lips, reminding him to be quiet. Benjamin put up his hands—his way of saying, It was an accident!
    He swept his flashlight over a small patch of ground in front of him. There was some movement between the bricks—it was hard to see, but he was pretty sure there was a beetle down there. And what was that, hidden in the tall grass? Benjamin bent to pick it up, then brought it to his cousin so they could examine it together.
    “What is it? It looks like a bunch of sticks,” Gabe whispered. It had a rounded shape, and it was just the right size to carry something small and delicate.

    “It’s a bird’s nest,” Benjamin replied. “It probably blew out of a tree!” It was amazing to think of the tiny eggs that had been in there once—or of the baby birds that had since flown away.
    “Wait a minute!” Gabe said. “There’s something else in the grass, too.” He took a few steps and shone his flashlight near where Benjamin had found the nest. He picked up something and stared at it, mystified. It was a small fleck of something, like a seashell or a thin piece of soap.
    This time Gabe was the one who realized what they were looking at. “That’s a shell from a hatched egg!” he cried. His voice was low, but Benjamin could tell Gabe was excited and proud.
    “Nice going, Gabe!” he said. Then he called his dad over, softly. “Dad, look at this eggshell we found. Any idea what kind of bird laid the egg?” he asked.
    Mr. Baxter shone his flashlight on it and examined it carefully. “See that pale blue color that’s almost faded away?” he said. “That’s the trademark color of a robin’s egg.”
    A little while later, a shadow slinked into the yard from around the neighbor’s fence. At first Benjamin thought it was a black-and-white cat . . . until he realized it was a skunk!
    “Don’t worry,” he told Gabe, who was looking worried enough for both of them. “Skunks don’t like to use their spray—it’s sort of a last resort for them. They don’t want to use it all up, since they only carry enough for five or six sprays and it takes a while for their bodies to build it up again. If we don’t bother him, he won’t bother us.”
    Benjamin knew that what he said was true, but he was still glad when the skunk slipped under the same fence as the garter snake. There was no telling what other animals might do to rile the skunk, and he didn’t want to be anywhere near it if it sprayed!
    “Hey, where’s Lucy?” he asked all of a sudden. The yard wasn’t very big. So