River by Saddleback Educational Publishing

Author:Saddleback Educational Publishing
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781602916821
Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
Published: 2015-05-07T15:01:58+00:00

Chapter 7

It was a noisy night. The Silvas heard many grunts. And shrieks. And sharp cries. They heard parrots. And toads. And frogs.

Antonio and Rafael took their turns on guard. The noises slowly stopped. It was getting light.

They found some wild fruit for breakfast. It tasted sour. But it was juicy and filling. They put out the fire. Then everyone headed into the jungle.

They came to another opening. Rafael could see the Amazon River to his left. He could also see a smaller river. The Silvas stood on the shore. They studied the problem.

“Hmm, I’m guessing. This water goes into the Amazon,” Franco said.

“I think you’re right, Franco. But we still have to cross it. We can’t go around. It might take us miles into the jungle,” Rafael said.

“I think we can cross it,” Lilia said. “It doesn’t look that wide.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” said Rafael. “We don’t know how deep it is. Or what animals might be living in it.”

“Oh, right! I forgot about caimans and piranhas!” Lilia cried.

Antonio saw a tree trunk. It was on the ground. “Look, Dad!” he said. “Maybe we can use that to float across.”

“Yeah,” Franco agreed. “We can cut some branches. Then we can pole across. We won’t even get wet.”

“It might work. It just might work,” Rafael said. “Good thinking, guys.”

They found some branches. And they cut four poles. Then they carried them to the small river.

They moved the huge log into the water. It was heavy! They climbed on top. Then they pushed off with their poles. The log started to float across.

They were in the middle of the river. Then Lilia shouted, “Dad, look!”

Everyone turned. Their mouths dropped open. Their eyes got big.

Moving toward their log was a large snake. It was huge. They never saw a snake that large before! Its thick, green body was 20 feet long. And it looked hungry!

Rafael breathed hard. “Keep poling for the other shore!” he yelled.

The snake opened its huge mouth.

Rafael lifted his pole high. He brought it down on the snake’s head. The huge snake was stunned.

Finally, they reached the far shore. Everyone climbed to safety. They stopped to look back. They looked down at the water.

“I’m pretty sure that was an anaconda,” Rafael said. “The largest snake in the world.”

“I’m scared. I wish we were back home. Back in the Heights,” Lilia said. She looked at her older brother. “Are you scared, Franco?”

“Who wouldn’t be?” Franco said. “That monster was coming for us. I was scared to death! That was a huge snake!”

“We need to stay strong. We need to keep walking. No matter how scared we are,” Rafael continued. “We’ll be okay.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.