1 Bottles

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1. BOTTLES Every Saturday morning, Matilda sat on the dock in Dull-on-Sea harbor and fished for bottles, hoping to receive a message from her best friend, Jim Lad. Jim was a pirate, and he liked to keep in touch with Matilda by sending notes. When he'd written one, he would pop it into an old bottle, plug it up with a cork, and throw it over the side of his family's pirate ship into the sea.

If Jim had a really urgent message, and they weren't too far from land, he might tie it to the leg of his grandpa's parrot, Squawk, who would fly to Matilda's house and tap on her window. Jim called this "air-mail," but to Matilda it always sounded more like "arrr-mail." But most of the time, Jim's notes arrived in bottles. Matilda's dad was sitting beside her, fishing for fish rather than bottles. He rarely caught anything, but he had a lot of very expensive equipment and a hat covered with hooks pointing skyward. He'd dozed off and was gently snoring. Matilda was feeling a bit sleepy too. She was mid-yawn when her fishing line

suddenly snagged on something. She sat upright, spinning her reel expectantly, and spotted her hook tugging a faded green bottle across the water. Matilda could see there was a piece of parchment inside! She reeled it in, giddy with excitement, hoping it was a note from Jim Lad. She wrenched the cork out with her teeth, turned the bottle upside down, and shook furiously. The parchment tumbled out and unfurled to reveal a map. "Eh? Humph... What have you got there?" Matilda's dad mumbled, awoken by the clunk as Matilda put the bottle down. "Another note from Jim Lad?"

"Nope! It's a map!" said Matilda, holding the roll of tattered parchment open. "And there's a big red X in the middle, right over a tiny island. Do you think it's a treasure map?" On the other side of the parchment was a note, but it wasn't in Jim's handwriting. "My dear fellow pirate... Do ye want to be rich?" Matilda read. "Hmmm. Maybe I should write to Jim. He'd be a 'fellow pirate,' and he loves treasure maps. We could go treasure hunting together! And," Matilda pointed out, "Jim and his parents have a ship, which would make searching for a treasure island much easier."

"Good idea," said her dad. "But you'll have to check with your m—" Before he could finish his sentence, a parrot landed on his head. "GRUMPY MERMAID!" screeched Squawk. "GRUB AND GROG! TWELVE O'CLOCK!" "Hooray! Jim Lad's here!" Matilda squealed.