Your Backyard Is Wild Read Online Free Page B

stolen them.
    He stood by the flower bed for several minutes, waiting and watching. Just when he was ready to move to another part of the yard, a delicate snake crossed in front of him and went to bask on a low stone wall! “Look, a garter snake,” Benjamin hissed to his sister and his cousin.
    He wanted to pick it up—he was pretty sure that the worst a garter snake could do was give off a bad smell—but he didn’t want to take any chances. Instead, he motioned Gabe and Lucy over to take a look. The garter snake had a striped pattern on its skin, and between the stripes were rows of dots.

    “Garter snakes live all over the place,” Lucy told Gabe. “They’re one of the most common snakes around.”
    As they watched, the snake slithered to the end of the wall. In a moist, shady spot, it found a couple of slugs. Then, with one gulp, the snake swallowed one of them!
    “I can’t believe it,” Gabe said, shaking his head. “The food chain . . . right here in the yard.”
    It was funny to see Gabe so surprised, Benjamin thought. The look on Gabe’s face was probably like the look he’d had when they were in the subway station. They watched the snake slide through a fence to the next yard.
    Now Benjamin brought out a small shovel and handed it to Gabe. Benjamin was glad he’d managed to fit so many supplies in his backpack! “Let’s see what we can dig up next,” he joked. The boys took turns digging in a pile of old leaves. The ones on top were dry and crunchy, but the ones underneath were moist and decomposing.
    Soon Benjamin found yet another creature. It was small, and had rolled into a ball when he picked it up. “Look, a pill bug,” he said, handing it to Lucy.
    “Also known as a roly-poly,” she confirmed. “Look at this one, Gabe!”
    She held it out for him to see. Gabe gasped as the ball unrolled in her palm, revealing an oval body with seven pairs of legs. Its back was a hard shell made of several different pieces.

    “You’ll never guess who his cousins are!” said Benjamin.
    “Armadillos?” Gabe replied.
    “Crabs and lobsters,” Benjamin said, chuckling. “Crustaceans. It looks like an insect, but the pill bug is actually the only crustacean that lives entirely on land. It doesn’t need to be in water; but it likes dark, wet places, like the leaf pile.”
    “Unbelievable!” Gabe said.
    For a moment, Benjamin thought he saw Gabe’s attention wander, and suddenly he wondered if his cousin was overwhelmed. He knew what it felt like when his parents tried to show him everything at once. When they did that, he always wished they could take a break. And that was when he hadn’t had a bad accident on a playground!
    “I think we’ve explored enough for now,” Benjamin said to Gabe and Lucy. “Let’s go inside for a snack!”

Chapter Five

    T he minute they got inside, Gabe wanted to go back out again! Benjamin realized he was all wrong about his cousin needing a break. In fact, Gabe couldn’t get enough of exploring the yard! “It’s like they’re showing me around,” he heard him say to Aunt Lily. “It’s a part of New York I never even knew was there!”
    They couldn’t go back out yet, though, because Uncle Peter had made dinner. “My famous lasagna,” he said, putting a piece on every plate.
    As they ate, Gabe asked the Baxters about the exploring trips they’d taken. Benjamin’s parents didn’t even know where to start. “Well, we went to Yellowstone last summer,” said Mrs. Baxter. “At home, we’d been studying the endangered species of the Everglades. Out west, though, different species are threatened. We did some research on wolves while we were there.”
    “For a long time there were almost no wolves left,” Benjamin added. “But now scientists and conservationists are working to bring them back.”
    “I think that was my favorite trip ever,” Lucy said. “I mean, besides this one. We got to see the wolves up close—they acted just like dogs! Plus we