兒童英語讀物《神奇樹屋》第十八冊 Buffalo Before Breakfast 10 Good Medicine
"We're home," said Annie.
Bright sunlight flooded the tree house. Teddy licked Jack's andAnnie's faces. They were back in their jeans and T-shirts.
"Hey, silly," Annie said to the dog. "Now we have the secondthing to help free you from your spell."She took the eagle's feather out of Jack's backpack. She put iton Morgan's note, next to the silver pocket watch from theTitanic.
"Now we have our gift from the prairie blue," said Jack. "Letyour thoughts rise as high as this feather.""Hey, I just had a thought!" said Annie.
"What?" said Jack.
"I bet Teddy had something to do with the White BuffaloWoman," she said.
"Why?" asked Jack.
"One second Teddy disappeared in the grass. Then WhiteBuffalo Woman appeared," said Annie. "When White BuffaloWoman disappeared, Teddy appeared.""Hmm.." said Jack. He stared at the little dog.
Teddy tilted his head and gave Jack a wise look.
"Well..." said Jack, "maybe Teddy has good medicine.""Now you understand," said Annie, smiling. "Ja-ack! An-nie!"A call came from the distance.
Jack and Annie looked out the window of the tree house.
Their mom and their grandmother were standing on theirporch.
"Yay, Grandmother's here!" said Annie.
"We're coming!" they shouted together.
"Let's put Teddy in your backpack," said Annie. "So we cantake him home with us this time.""Okay," said Jack.
But when they turned around, the little dog was gone.
"Teddy?" said Annie. There was no sign of him.
"Oh, man, as soon as we turned our backs, he slipped away,"said Jack. "Just like last time.""Don't Worry," said Annie. "He'll find us again Soon. I'm sureof it." She started down the rope ladder.
Jack grabbed his pack and followed.
As they started for home, a wind gusted through the trees.
Jack stopped for a moment to look at the woods.
Branches waved their leaves.
Birds left the branches and swooped up into the blue sky.
Black Hawk's grandmother is right, he thought. All things arerelated.
"Jack!" called Annie.
"Coming!" said Jack.
He hurried to catch up with her.
Together they ran out of the Frog Creek woods.. .up theirstreet.. .and into their owngrandmother's arms.
The EndTHE LEGEND OF WHITE BUFFALO WOMANLong ago, when the Lakota had no game to hunt, a beautifulwoman in white buckskins appeared. She gave the chief of thetribe a special pipe. It had a buffalo carved on its round bowl andeaglefeathers hanging from its long wooden stem.
White Buffalo Woman told the chief that the smoke from thesacred pipe would carry prayers to the Great Spirit. The GreatSpirit would answer by helping the Lakota find buffalo to hunt.
White Buffalo Woman also said that the pipe smoke wouldjoin all living things to the Lakota tribe.
The pipe bowl represented the earth.
The buffalo carved upon it represented all four-legged animalsthat live upon the earth.
The pipe's wooden stem represented all that grows on theearth.
The twelve eagle feathers hanging from it represented all thewinged creatures.
As White Buffalo Woman walked away from the tribe, sheturned into a white buffalo calf-- one of the rarest animals of all.
The legend of White Buffalo Woman has been handed downfrom generation to generation by Lakota people.
MORE FACTS FOR YOU AND JACK1) The Lakota tribe has also been called the Sioux.
2) Today most Lakota live on reservations in North and SouthDakota. ("Reservations" are areas of land reserved for NativeAmericans by the U.S. government.) Lakota parents andgrandparents still pass on the traditional beliefs of their people totheir children.
3) The true name of the buffalo is bison. Bison came to NorthAmerica during the Ice Age and at one time were the biggestgroup of large mammals on the continent.
4) In the 1800s, the U.S. Army was at war with the NativeAmericans of the plains. They knew the Native American wayof life could not survive without the bison. So they decided tokill all the herds. In the years that followed, millions of bisonwere killed until there were only a few hundred left.
In the early 1900s, many people were upset by the killing ofthe bison. They asked the government to help save theseanimals. Captive bison were sent to Yellowstone National Parkand protected from hunters. Almost 2,500 bison live there today.
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