Read Dragon of the Red Dawn: A Merlin Mission for Free Online Page B

moonlight
And cool breezes
Still fill my heart ,
Left over from last night.
“Whoa!” whispered Annie. “Good!”
“Yes, very good!” said the samurai. He looked at the sky. “The moonlight, the cool breeze,” he mused, “left over from the night. Very good. Master Basho has taught you well!”
The samurai strolled away, shaking his head and murmuring to himself. He let out a happy laugh, as if delighted with the day.
Jack couldn’t believe it. They were free! “Hurry, let’s go,” he said. “Before someone else sees us!”
Jack and Annie ran to the rope ladder andstarted up. As soon as they climbed inside the tree house, Jack grabbed the Pennsylvania book. He found a picture of the Frog Creek woods. “As the famous samurai once said, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,’” said Jack.
“Or one sentence,” said Annie.
“Right,” said Jack. He pointed at the picture. “I wish we could go home.”
Annie gasped. “Wait a minute!” she said. “We forgot our mission!”
“What?” said Jack.
But the wind started to blow.
The tree house started to spin.
It spun faster and faster.
Then everything was still.
Absolutely still.

The early-morning air was cold.
Jack and Annie were back in Frog Creek,wearing their own clothes. Jack’s burlap bag was a backpack again. He looked inside to make sure the Wand of Dianthus was there. It was. And Basho’s frog poem was there, too.
“I can’t believe it!” said Annie. “We didn’t look for a secret of happiness for Merlin. How could we forget that?”
“Oh, man,” said Jack. “We were so busy worrying about the samurai and putting out the fire that we forgot our mission.”
“What will Morgan say?” said Annie. “We’ve never forgotten a mission before! And this one was the most important we’ve ever had! To help save Merlin!” Annie was near tears.
“Wait, wait. Calm down,” said Jack. “Let’s think a minute. Maybe we actually found a secret of happiness. Maybe we just don’t know we found it.”
“You mean, like—were we extra happy at any time?” asked Annie.
“Yeah, sort of,” said Jack. “Were we?”
“I don’t know, were you?” said Annie.
“I think a few times …,” said Jack.
“Like when?” said Annie.
“Like when we were crossing the Great Bridge with Basho, I felt sort of happy then,” said Jack.
“Me too,” said Annie. “And I was pretty happy eating sushi.”
“Yeah, but I got scared when I saw the samurai watching me,” said Jack.
“What about the sumo-wrestling match?” asked Annie.
“That was fun,” said Jack. “But I don’t know if it really made me happy.”
“Riding the dragon and putting out the fire?” said Annie.
“That was great,” said Jack. “But I was too worried about saving the city to be happy.”
“Making up poems for the samurai?” said Annie.
“Too nervous,” said Jack.
“Well, when were you purely happy?” said Annie.
“I think it was when …” Jack stopped. He felt silly saying what he was about to say.
“Go ahead,” said Annie.
“I think it was when I was lying on the mat in Basho’s house,” said Jack, “and I touched that little patch of moonlight on the floor and I listened to the banana leaves in the wind.”
“Oh, yes!” said Annie. “Before we fell asleep, and I heard the cricket and I felt like I was a cricket myself going to sleep in a cozy place.”
“Yeah, like that,” said Jack.
“It’s like what Basho said about finding beauty in the small things of nature,” said Annie, “like his poem about that frog splashing in the water.”
“I think that’s it!” said Jack. “A secret of happiness is paying really close attention to the small things in nature.”
“Wow,” said Annie. “I think that’s a great secret to share with Merlin.”
“It is,” said Jack, “and Basho’s poem will help Merlin understand.”
“Right,” said Annie.
“Let’s go,” said Jack.
Annie climbed down the rope ladder. Jack put his pack on his