[Good news! Addie is on the road of recovery! The last few days, she has done much better. (She has been hospitalized more than a week.) ~ When asked what she'd like for the next story, Addie said she wanted the princess and prince again, but in Egypt with guards and treasure. (She had watched a documentary with her Daddy.) ~ By the way, pink is her favorite color, and her favorite animal is a whale!]

Princess Ahdi pushed down on a long lever. It pried up the heavy stone lid of a large stone box. "Hurry!" she said. "I don't know how long I can hold this!"

Prince Li-Ahm took a big pink shimmering jewel out of the small casket he carried, and slid the amethyst into the crack. They heard it plop down inside. "Done!" he said.

Princess Ahdi let go, and the lid crashed back into place. "The last gem of King Poppa's treasure, now safely buried with him," she said. "Maybe the robbers will stop sneaking around our palace, when we tell everyone we don't have it anymore. Let's go home."

The princess and prince crawled back through the long secret tunnel. When they came out on a hillside near the river, they covered up the entry again.

"Do you still have the map?" Ahdi asked.

Li-Ahm peeked in his casket. "Yup. Still there."

"Good. Keep it hidden. Don't want anyone to know how to find the secret tunnel."

They ran down the hillside to the river bank, waded out to their royal barge, and used poles to push the flat-bottomed boat out into the river.

Halfway home, along came another barge. Cousin Phioh-Let sat in the barge's decorated chair while her guards pushed her boat with poles to bring it closer. "Stop!" Phioh-Let commanded. She stood up. She wore a white dress with a gold belt, and from her golden necklace hung pale violet scarves that swirled in the desert breeze. Over her black hair she wore a golden tiara shaped like a cobra, with violet eyes made from small jewels.

"Give me the map!" Phioh-Let yelled. "I want all the treasure!"

"The treasure is buried with our grampa, the king," Princess Ahdi said. "Only the next king or queen can have it, if they're brave enough to go down into the pyramid on their crowning day and open the tomb."

"You think one of you will rule next? Well, even if you do, I'm brave enough to go through the secret tunnel right now and steal all the treasure," Phioh-Let sneered. "Yes, I know about the tunnel. Now give me the map!"

"Never!" yelled Ahdi and Li-Ahm together. They pushed their poles, trying to move their barge away.

"Tip them over!" Phioh-Let ordered her guards.

They banged Ahdi's barge with their poles. Ahdi and Li-Ahm hung onto the edges as it bobbed on the river. "Don't worry! We won't drown," Ahdi told her little brother. "We're good swimmers."

Phioh-Let laughed an evil laugh. "But can you swim faster than that huge hulking hungry hippopotamus?"

"I see something big coming up the river!" Li-Ahm squawked. "The mean old hippo! It'll crunch us for lunch with its terrible teeth!"

"Don't worry," Ahdi told Li-Ahm as the barge lurched higher. "That isn't a hippo. It's a friendly little river whale coming to help us!"

"River whale?" Phioh-Let asked, scowling. "I never heard of such a thing!"

"Li-Ahm, hold onto your Magic Box!" Ahdi yelled. "I mean, your casket! The whale will rescue us!"

The barge tipped over, spilling Ahdi and Li-Ahm into the swirling brown river water. Was that a river whale coming for them, or a hungry, unhappy hippo? They screamed, then went under, then got water in their mouths, then swam to the surface and found...

Daddy! He picked one child up in each arm. "Did I hear a big splash in here? Come on. Time for baths!"

Addie turned her Magic Box up-side-up and pushed it to Box Corner. Liam scooped up their silky scarves and golden arm rings and yardstick-poles. Together they put everything away in Mommy's Magic Box, the beautiful wooden trunk that never had the same things twice.

"We didn't have our barge picnic," Liam said as he picked up his Magic Box.

"Bring it along," Daddy said. "You can have a bathtub picnic instead."

Addie grinned. "We'll share it with the river whale!"