A Crazy Day with Cobras by Mary Pope Osborne Read Free Book Online

head. His worst thought was that the Great Mogul had changed his mind and wanted to punish them.
    The horses passed the mud huts, the men and boys hauling hay, the women and girls cooking outdoors. They passed goats and sheep and chickens.
    The horses clopped down the stone road. They moved easily through the bazaar. Jack saw that the silks and carpets were hanging on the lines again. Oranges, lemons, and pineapples were back in the baskets. Tent poles were all standing, and the bearded merchants looked happy and busy.
    The horses trotted down the street toward the Red Fort. When they came to the drawbridge, Jack expected them to cross the moat and head back to the palace, but they didn’t. The horses trotted past the fort and down a road along the river.
    The sun was low in the sky when the horse-drawn carriage came to a square. The horses stopped before a massive red gateway with an arched entrance.
    The guard turned to Jack and Annie. “You are to go inside and wait,” he said.
    “Okay. Thanks for the ride,” said Annie.
    The guard stayed in the carriage while Jack and Annie climbed out. They walked up to the looming gateway.
    “Where are we?” Annie whispered to Jack. “And why are we here?”
    “If I knew, I’d tell you,” whispered Jack.
    Jack and Annie stepped under the high, arched entrance. Leading from the entrance was a narrow canal stretching to the horizon.
    In the sunset, Jack thought he saw a cloud of mist hovering above the ground. Then he realized it was a shimmering, milky white dome about twenty stories high. It seemed to float between the earth and the sky. There were four tall towers at the corners of a terrace beneath the dome.
    Jack and Annie just stared at the dreamlike vision. Then they saw a man walking along the narrow canal toward them. As the man got closer, Jack caught his breath. It was the Great Mogul! No guards were with him. He was all alone.
    The Great Mogul stopped and stared at them. His gaze took in their ragged, torn coats and bare feet.
    Jack panicked. They looked terrible. Would theruler think they weren’t showing proper respect for him?
    “Bow,” Annie whispered.
    Together, they bowed from their waists and brushed their right hands on the ground. They straightened up, raised their right hands into the air, and placed their palms on their heads. Then they lowered their hands and stood perfectly still. Jack cast his eyes down, afraid to look directly at the Great Mogul.
    There was a moment of silence. Then the all-powerful ruler spoke. “I have never read such writing before. Or seen such artwork,” he said.
    Jack looked up at the Great Mogul. But he didn’t know what to do. Were they allowed to talk?
    “Excuse me, Your Majesty,” said Annie. “Is it all right to speak?”
    “Yes,” said the Great Mogul.
    “Thank you. Well, Jack wrote the words,” said Annie. “And I drew the pictures.”
    The Great Mogul nodded. “Your story andpictures tell of riding through the world in a tree house. You tell of saving a huge octopus, a baby gorilla, and a baby kangaroo. You tell of helping brilliant men named Leonardo da Vinci and William Shakespeare. You tell of rescuing children from a giant ocean wave and from a sinking ship. You are a great storyteller,” he said to Jack.
    “Oh, not really,” said Jack. He felt embarrassed. “I just told about stuff that happened to us.”
    The Great Mogul turned to Annie. “Your pictures are filled with life and joy. They are rich and stirring. You are a great artist,” he said.
    “Not really,” Annie said. “Lots of people draw better than me. What you probably loved was the perfect printing of Jack’s story and the sparkly colors of my pens.”
    “Yeah, we can’t take credit for those things,” said Jack.
    The Great Mogul almost smiled. “The perfect letters and the sparkles were not what I liked best,” he said. “I liked the heart in the story. I liked the heart in the drawings.”
    Jack couldn’t explain why, but