Pack Trip by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

were a good eight feet above the ground.
    “There’s a little problem, John,” Christine said politely.
    “Here, stand on my shoulders,” he offered. “One of you should be able to reach from there, don’t you think?”
    Carole didn’t think it would work, but she figured it was worth a try. She was the tallest of the three girls, so she volunteered, but it was clear almost instantly that it just wasn’t enough.
    “Now if you were a basketball player …” she teased.
    “I
do
play basketball,” John protested.
    “NBA,” Carole specified.
    “It’s not the sport, it’s the height,” Christine said. “We just need somebody taller.”
    “We’ve
got
somebody taller!” Kate announced triumphantly. Then, before anybody could ask what she meant, she whistled loudly. The horses, who had been grazing lazily on the other side of the field, pricked up their ears and moved toward the familiar sound. Kate whistled again. Her horse, an Appaloosa named Spot, arrived first.
    “I think he’s tall enough,” she said.
    “Great idea!” John agreed. He hiked himself up onto Spot’s back and, using his legs to guide the horse, rode him directly under the lowest branch.
    Kate and Christine held Spot’s halter while John rose to a standing position on the horse’s back.
    “People in the circus always make this look so easy,” he said, using his hands to balance himself.
    “In the circus they use draft horses with very wide backs. An Appaloosa doesn’t have that same broad, flat surface,” Kate said.
    “I noticed,” he told the girls. “But I am as nimble as an aerialist and can rise above all adversity.” With that he grabbed onto the lowest branch and drew himself up into the feathery needles of the tree. Soon he was standing securely, looking for the next branch to climb on.
    “Not only can he rise above adversity, he can even rise above the ground!” Christine joked. In response a bird’s nest hit her on the head before it tumbled to the ground.
    “One down, nine to go,” John declared. He jumped down from the branch and landed safely next to Spot.
    “Thanks, boy,” he said, patting the horse’s neck warmly. Spot looked at him expectantly. The look said
carrot
.
    “I’ve tried to teach him not to beg,” Kate joked.
    “It’s okay,” John said. “I understand. It’s just that I don’t have any carrots. All I’ve got is a bird’s nest, and he can’t have that.”
    Spot returned to the herd followed by promises of carrots in the morning.
    “Okay, what’s next on the list?” John asked.
    “A pine cone, and it’s right here,” Carole said, picking up one from under the tree. And here’s a rock. Is it granite?”
    Kate, who had taken some geology in sixth grade, examined the rock. She said she thought it looked as if it were probably granite, and by the time they got back to the campsite, it would be too dark to tell anyway.
    “Check it off,” she announced authoritatively.
    It took a little longer to find some of the other items. They combed the bases of four oak trees before locating a single acorn that had been overlooked by all the local squirrels, and they had to comb a whole field before coming across one scraggly crow feather.
    “How do we know it’s a crow feather?” Christine asked, looking at the weathered sample they had finally located.
    “How will Eli know it’s
not
?” John countered.
    The logic was compelling. They checked the feather off their list, too.
    It was easy to find an ant but hard to hold onto it. None of them wanted to kill it. Carole fished in her pocket and found a small plastic bag with a zipper closure. Carole lured the ant into it with some leftover sandwich crumbs and blew the bag up like a balloon before sealing it so the guest would have as much air as possible.
    “It still might suffocate before we get it to Eli,” John said.
    “That’s true,” Kate said. “But at least we’ve tried, right?”
    “Right,” John agreed.
    By the time the