Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street & When Mules Flew on Magnolia Street Read Online Free

digger.
    Digging is something that I can't help. I have done it since I was a little baby. Dad says I used to try to dig my way out of the playpen.
    I don't talk about my digging too much 'cause every time I dig it usually gets me in trouble.
    Billy understands about my digging. He says that he knows how hard it can be to break a habit like that. He has a nosy problem and that is pretty hard for him.
    When we moved to Magnolia Street, one of the first things I noticed was a vacant lot that looked like the perfect place to dig.
    So—
    I had been trying not to dig for a long time. But a few nights ago, I dreamed I was in a cave that had treasures and fossils. I woke up digging in my sleep. It was time to do something about this digging problem.
    When I asked Billy what I should do about it, he blew a big bubble and spun around on his skates.
    “Dig!”
    So what was I going to do?
    I'd been looking at the empty place across the street from my house for a long time. I decided to drag Billy away from his skating. I had to tell him I was pretty sure that there was a sabertooth tiger or something just waiting for us to dig up.
    “Okay, Charlie, where is it?” Billy said, munching on an apple and looking real unhappy.
    I expected more from Billy, even though Iknow that everybody is not a digger. But I figured that Billy should have been a little happier that I was sharing with him.
    “Billy?”
    “What?”
    “Guess what?”
    “What, Charlie?”
    “What are you going to do with your part of the sabertooth tiger bones you find?”
    “Well, I guess I'll put them together with yours.”
    “Then you'll help me dig?”
    Well, I can say this about Billy, and it's probably why we're friends, if you bug him enough he'll join in sooner or later. He even looked like he might be getting excited about the saber-tooth across the street.
    While we were both hanging upside down in Miss Marcia's apple tree, Billy asked, “What do we need to dig? You know we have to becareful. We don't want to break any sabertooth bones or anything.”
    I thought for a while.
    “A shovel might be too much. Anyway, my mom won't let me use it after that flower-digging accident I had.”
    Billy swung by his legs faster.
    “What flower-digging accident?”
    I closed my eyes, remembering all the dirt and flowers lying around the backyard. I only meant to move the different flowers around so all the colors would be lined up together. Well, I got kind of tired and there was this funny movie on television that Sid was watching.
    Mom wasn't happy.
    So I just said, “Nothing.”
    Billy jumped down from the tree.
    “My dad has digging tools he uses for the garden out back. They're small, and I'm sure he won't miss them.”
    “Yeah, he probably won't miss them. FU get some bags to keep the bones and other stuff we find.”
    Me and Billy were set.
    The digging was hard in the beginning. An old house used to be there, but the only thing left from it was part of the chimney. You wouldn't believe the things we started to find underneath the dirt. I just knew that there had to be a sabertooth or something there.
    The first thing we dug up was spoons.
    Billy said, “We could clean these things up. They probably are gold!”
    Billy put the gold spoons in the bag that was for everything else but bones.
    After a while it started getting real hot. I could almost make believe that me and Billy were digging way off in a desert somewhere. We were far away from home with only a little water. We were famous archaeologists.
    I would find bones.
    Billy would find gold spoons.
    I would find fossils.
    Billy would find gold spoons.
    I would find a whole city buried way down underneath the desert.
    And there, Billy would find more gold spoons.
    Me and Billy didn't even talk to each other while we dug. We were too busy finding all kinds of treasures.
    Billy found a cracked mirror.
    I found a scrub brush.
    Billy found a bottle with a metal top on it, and I found an old can.
    The