Your Backyard Is Wild Read Online Free

Benjamin replied. “A centipede! It’s about the length of a worm. But see how it’s flat, more like a salamander? And look how its body is divided into about ten segments, each with its own pair of legs.”
    Gabe studied it for a second. “It has antennae, too—see? And are those claws?” Nice observation, Benjamin thought.
    “They are,” he said. “Centipedes live in woodsy, moist places, but they’re not vegetarians. They use those claws to catch and kill tiny creatures, mostly insects. In his world, he’s a hard-core predator!” Which made him remember something else. “I think you’d better put that guy down, actually. They can pinch people, too.”
    His cousin dropped the centipede like a hot potato. “I’ve never seen one here before . . . ,” Gabe said, his sentence trailing off.
    Benjamin could tell his cousin found it a little creepy, but he couldn’t resist tossing in one more fact. “There are hundreds of kinds of centipedes,” he said, “all over the world. On some Pacific islands, they can grow to be almost two feet long!”
    “Okay,” said Gabe. “Enough about bugs! Watch this!”
    Lucy was still going back and forth on the monkey bars, so Gabe shinnied up a pole and hung upside down on a high bar. He did a flip and leaped to the ground. But when he landed, he lost his balance! Gabe fell back and hit his head against another bar, and his body crumpled on the ground.

Chapter Four

    B enjamin crouched down next to his cousin. “Are you okay?” he asked anxiously. He didn’t know what to do!
    Luckily, Lucy and the grown-ups were beside him in seconds, and Aunt Lily smoothed Gabe’s hair back off his forehead until he could speak. He was a little dizzy, which worried his mom. But after a while, he stood up and seemed to be fine.
    Aunt Lily and Uncle Peter weren’t taking any chances, though. They hailed a taxi, while Benjamin’s family walked back to the apartment. Benjamin couldn’t help but wonder what this would mean for their trip. Would Gabe still be able to do all the things they’d planned?
    Back at the apartment, Gabe was already on the couch, resting. A woman was sitting beside him, and Uncle Peter told Benjamin it was one of their neighbors, a doctor at a nearby hospital.
    “You must have taken quite a fall!” she said to Gabe, keeping the tone light. “You might want to think twice before you try that trick again!”
    She got more serious as she explained that head injuries had to be treated with care. “It doesn’t seem like you have a concussion, which is good,” she said. “All I can see is a bump at the back of your head, which we can keep down with ice. But you’re going to need to take it easy for a couple of days.”
    Gabe groaned. “But I have things to do!” he said. “I can’t just lie on the couch while my cousins are here!”
    “We’ll stay with you,” Benjamin promised. It wasn’t what he’d expected from the trip, but spending time with Gabe was more important than anything else.
    And this would be a perfect time to show Gabe his rock collection! He was able to distract Gabe for a while by showing him many different kinds of rocks and telling him where they’d come from.
    Gabe also laughed when Lucy brought out the alligator skull, moved its jaws, and made it say, “Get well soon, Gabe!”
    “That thing is amazing!” Gabe said, looking it over. “I need to get one of those!”
    Eventually, though, Gabe got back to talking about their visit. “It’s not fair,” he complained. “What are we supposed to do now? Watch movies about New York instead of explore the real thing?”
    That’s when Benjamin was inspired. “What if we do a different kind of sightseeing? The kind we Baxters always do on trips?” When Gabe stared at him blankly, he explained a little more. “Usually we watch animals and explore where they live. Usually we’re part of our parents’ research trips, so we end up doing research ourselves.”
    “Okay . . . but