Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 At dinner that night, Aunt Daisy raised her glass. "To George! No trouble for one entire day!" They clinked their glasses together just as an old man stopped by their table. "Mrs. Key," the man said to Aunt Daisy. "I've been meaning to say hello." "Mr. Stead!" Aunt Daisy said. "What a pleasure. This is George, my nephew, and Phoebe, my niece." Mr. Stead nodded hello. "So," Aunt Daisy said. "What brings you onto this magnificent ship?"

"Oh, I couldn't miss it," he said. "I think all of society is on this ship. I hear there's even an Egyptian princess on board." "Really!" Aunt Daisy said. "I haven't met her!" "Well, none of us have. She's traveling in the first class baggage room." "Excuse me?" Aunt Daisy said. "The princess is more than twenty-five hundred years old," Mr. Stead said. George's ears perked up. "I'm not sure I understand," Aunt Daisy said. "She's a mummy," Mr. Stead said. "A mummy!" Phoebe gasped. "That's right," Mr. Stead said. "From a tomb near Thebes. I understand she belongs to a man named Mr. Burrows. People are saying he sold the coffin to the British Museum. Then he packed the princess herself in a wooden crate. Apparently he's bringing her back for his collection. Some say it's bad luck to take a mummy from its tomb." "I'm glad I'm not the superstitious type!" Aunt Daisy said.

Mr. Stead chuckled. "In any case, nothing can harm this ship. Not even the curse of a mummy!" Mr. Stead tipped his hat and said good-bye. "Mr. Stead is a very famous writer in England," Aunt Daisy said. "You never know who you'll meet on the Titanic!" And then it hit George, the best idea ever. That mummy! He had to see it. Maybe this day wasn't so boring after all.