CHAPTER FOUR

The path they followed was dry and sandy, like most of the soil in the Pine Barrens. That’s why it’s called “barren”—because most things can’t grow in soil like that. But pine trees can, and they crowded in on the path, squeezing out the sunlight. Up and down the trunks, branches stuck out at crazy angles, with bristling needles at the ends. Long beards of gray-green moss hung down, making the trees look like old men. The cicadas hummed so loudly they sounded angry.

Elliot and Uchenna were in front, just behind the teachers. Suddenly, Professor Fauna spun around. He towered over the children. Elliot and Uchenna froze.

“The Pine Barrens is not a safe place,” the professor intoned, his voice echoing over the gloomy path. “Many dangers are here. There are bears and coyotes and bobcats.”

“What?” Elliot exclaimed under his breath.

“Cool!” said Uchenna.

“What?” he said again, but this time to Uchenna.

“I want to see a bobcat!”

“No, you don’t,” Elliot said. “Do you know that if a bear attacks you, you’re supposed to play dead? But if you’re attacked by a bobcat, you have to fight it. I don’t want to fight a bobcat!”

Uchenna shrugged, as if she hadn’t made up her mind on the question.

“Also,” Professor Fauna went on, “the timber rattlesnake lives here. It is very deadly. So please, stay on the path.”

With one movement, everyone in the class stepped away from the underbrush. No teacher had ever gotten his students to walk single file so easily.

Despite the dry earth, the ground was thick with green growth. They passed red-leafed huckleberries and sheep laurel, sweet fern and catbrier. There was a low footbridge over a stream. The water was brown.

“The water looks like tea!” someone said.

“Yeah, the water looks like pee!” said the farting boy from the bus. A few children chortled.

Fauna spun on the farting boy. “Your pee looks like this? Brown?”

The boy stammered.

“You should see a doctor, I think.”

Now all the children laughed.

“This water is very special,” the professor went on. “They call it cedar water, and it is brown because it is rich with cedar sap and iron. It is very sweet. Sea captains used to put it in barrels and take it to sea, because it would stay pure and sweet longer than any other water.”

Uchenna peered over the bridge railing.

“Also,” Fauna went on, “there are treasure ships sunk in the deeper rivers. Pirates would drag the ships into the Barrens, and no one would dare follow them.”

“Is there still pirate gold?” someone asked.

“Perhaps! But there are greater treasures than gold in these woods.” And then he stared into the pines, as if he’d lost something that he hoped, very soon, to find.