Encyclopedia Brown Gets His Man by Donald J. Sobol, 1967, 1982.
The Idaville police department has an excellent record, but that’s because the chief of police’s ten-year-old son is Encyclopedia Brown. People praise Chief Brown, and Chief Brown doesn’t feel like he can admit how much help his son gives him because he doubts anyone would believe him. Encyclopedia himself doesn’t want to admit to other people that he helps his father figure out tough cases because he doesn’t want to seem too different from the others kids at school. However, Encyclopedia also has a detective business, helping the neighborhood kids to solve their problems for only 25 cents a day, plus expenses.
I always liked Encyclopedia Brown books when I was a kid! There are a couple of instances in this book of underage kids smoking, but I’d like to point out that smoking isn’t portrayed as a good think. Bugs is shown smoking in a picture, but he’s a young hoodlum and Encyclopedia’s nemesis, not one of the good guys in the stories. In another case, there’s a kid who smokes coffee grounds with a homemade pipe because he’s too young to buy tobacco. At first, he thinks he’s clever for figuring out how to do that and sneak a smoke without his mother’s knowledge, but it ends up getting him into trouble, and he promises Encyclopedia that he’ll give it up if he helps him out. Encyclopedia doesn’t lecture him, but he does refer to smoking as “burning your lungs”, so it seems that he isn’t in favor of it.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories in the Book:
The Case of the Marble Shooter
Algernon Kehoe is a master at marbles, but when he beat Bugs Meany, Bugs took all of his marbles, including his best shooters. Can Encyclopedia get Algernon’s marbles back?
The Case of Bugs Meany, Detective
Bugs Meany resents Encyclopedia for interfering with his schemes, but he can’t fight him directly because Encyclopedia’s detective partner, Sally, is the toughest and most athletic girl in their grade at school, and she’s beaten Bugs in a fight before. However, this time, he thinks he’s come up with a great way to get revenge – turn his gang, the Tigers, into a rival detective agency and beat Encyclopedia at his own game.
Someone steals a violin from the kids’ friend, Mario, and Bugs shows off that he can get it back before Encyclopedia and claim the reward for finding it. Of course, the kids’ first thought is that Bugs stole the violin himself. Can they prove it?
The Case of the Underwater Car
Encyclopedia and some friends want to go camping, and his mother tells him that he ought to ask Benny to go as well. Encyclopedia and the other kids like Benny, but they don’t like to camp with him because he snores badly. Sure enough, that night, Benny snores again, and Encyclopedia and the other boys have trouble getting to sleep. Encyclopedia leaves the tent for awhile and witnesses a bizarre car accident. The car misses a turn in the road, and the driver jumps out, screaming for help. The driver claims that he fell asleep at the wheel and that he woke up just in time to save himself. He says that his back is now badly injured, and he’s making a large claim on his insurance. However, Encyclopedia knows how to prove that the whole accident was staged.
The Case of the Whistling Ghost
A boy named Fabius hires Encyclopedia because he thinks his camera was stolen by a ghost. Fabius likes to study bugs, and he went inside the old, abandoned Morgan house to see if he could find any interesting bugs there. He was about to photograph a spider when a white ghost came down the stairs, making scary noises and an odd whistling sound. Fabius got spooked and ran off, leaving his camera behind. Later, when he got up the nerve to go back for his camera, it was gone.
The Case of the Explorer’s Money
A famous explorer dies, and a large amount of his money disappears. With so many people coming to his estate to attend an auction of the explorer’s belongings, how can Encyclopedia figure out how the thief plans to evade the searches being conducted by the police and get the money out of the estate?
The Case of the Coffee Smoker
A friend of the kids is being blackmailed. Someone is threatening to tell his mother that he’s been secretly smoking coffee grounds (because he’s too young to buy tobacco and thinks he’s found a clever way around the problem). He promises to kick the habit if Encyclopedia can stop the blackmailer. It isn’t hard to figure out who the blackmailer might be, but proving it will take more thought.
The Case of the Chinese Vase
A friend of Encyclopedia’s has a job cutting lawns to earn extra money for his family. While he’s working on a job, someone breaks an expensive vase in his client’s house, and they accuse Encyclopedia’s friend of doing it. Encyclopedia knows that it was actually the daughter of the house who did it, even though he wasn’t in the house at the time himself. How?
The Case of the Blueberry Pies
This year, there’s been a change to the pie-eating contest because local mothers think that the usual eating contest is gross and unhealthy. To make it healthier, they’ve limited the eating portion to two pies and added a race portion to the event. (Because running is a good thing to do immediately after eating two whole pies quickly?) However, one of the contestants seems to win too easily. How did they cheat?
The Case of the Murder Man
Cicero, a boy actor, wants to put on a mystery play with himself as the star as entertainment for an interfaith youth gathering. The problem is that he doesn’t have a good mystery story in mind, and he recruits Encyclopedia to write one that the audience can solve along with the characters.
The Case of the Million Pesos
Encyclopedia’s friend, Tim Gomez, is worried about his uncle, who is in jail in Mexico. He’s a famous baseball player, but he’s been accused of robbing a bank. Tim thinks his uncle was framed by a man named Pedro Morales because the woman he loved married Tim’s uncle instead, and he’s jealous. Tim’s uncle has an abili, but it’s not one that would be easy to prove. Even though the robbery occurred in another country, Tim asks Encyclopedia to consider the problem and see if he can think of something that will help.
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol, 1963, 1982.
The Idaville police department has an excellent record, but that’s because the chief of police’s ten-year-old son is Encyclopedia Brown. People praise Chief Brown, and Chief Brown doesn’t feel like he can admit how much help his son gives him because he doubts anyone would believe him. Encyclopedia himself doesn’t want to admit to other people that he helps his father figure out tough cases because he doesn’t want to seem too different from the others kids at school. However, Encyclopedia also has a detective business, helping the neighborhood kids to solve their problems for only 25 cents a day, plus expenses.
This is the very first book in the series and introduces the character and how he begins solving mysteries. It also explains how he meets his detective partner Sally Kimball and his neighborhood nemesis Bug Meany, who is the leader of a gang of boys called the Tigers.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories in the Book:
The Case of Natty Nat
In Encyclopedia’ first case ever, he helps his father to find the real criminal in a robbery case.
The Case of the Scattered Cards
Deciding after his first success that he wants to be a detective, Encyclopedia starts his own detective business out of his garage. His first client is a boy named Clarence, whose tent has been stolen by Bug Meany and his gang of friends called the Tigers. This is the first time that Encyclopedia meets Bugs, who becomes his neighborhood nemesis.
The Case of the Civil War Sword
Bugs Meany offers to trade a sword that he says dates from the Civil War and was once owned by Stonewall Jackson to a boy in exchange for his bike. A real antique sword would be world a great deal more than a bike, but Encyclopedia can tell that it’s a fake.
The Case of Merko’s Grandson
Sally Kimball is one of the prettiest and most athletic girls at school, and she’s also one of the smartest. She wants to prove that she’s as smart as any boy and challenges Encyclopedia to a mystery-solving contest. It’s boy against girl, with Bugs Meany and the Tigers surprisingly rallying behind Encyclopedia. (Bugs has reason to resent Sally, who beat him in a fight after he was bullying another kid. He resents her more than he resents Encyclopedia.) Encyclopedia solves the mystery that Sally poses for him, but rather than becoming another nemesis, Sally joins Encyclopedia’s detective agency.
The Case of the Bank Robber
Encyclopedia and Sally go down to the bank to open an account for the earnings from the detective business, and they witness a robbery in progress. They see the robber collide with a blind beggar and run off, but when the police catch up with the robber, he doesn’t have the money from the robbery with him. A visit with the blind beggar settles what happened.
The Case of the Happy Nephew
A man with a criminal history is accused of robbing a shop. He says that he’s innocent because he only just returned from a long car trip, but his small nephew accidentally proves that can’t be true.
The Case of the Diamond Necklace
Chief Brown is embarrassed because a necklace that he was supposed to guard was apparently stolen from an event where it was supposed to be auctioned off. Encyclopedia notices an inconsistency in the witness statement that proves what really happened.
The Case of the Knife in the Watermelon
A member of a local gang of kids broke into the storeroom of a grocery store and tried to rob it. (It’s the Lions this time instead of the Tigers. First, I think it’s funny that they have the same name as a benevolent club, and second, I want to make a joke about how there should be a third gang in their town call the Bears – Lions, Tigers, and Bears, oh my!) Fortunately, he was frightened away before he took anything, but in his getaway, he accidentally tripped and stabbed a watermelon with his knife, leaving the knife behind. The owner of the grocery store becomes Encyclopedia’s first adult client (other than his father), hiring him to figure out which kid in the gang it was.
The Case of the Missing Roller Skates
Encyclopedia had Sally’s roller skates because he was fixing them for her, but before he can give them back, they’re stolen from the dentist’s office during his appointment. Encyclopedia tracks down the thief!
The Case of the Champion Egg Spinner
A kid has been winning an egg spinning contest against other kids after convincing them to bet some of their prized possessions. The other kids ask Encyclopedia to find out how he’s been winning.
Alvin has been reading a book about spies, and now, he and his best friend, Shoie (a nickname, his real name is Wilfred Shoemaker), are playing at being spies. One day, as the boys are walking home from school, Shoie stops to pick up another bottle top for his collection, and he finds a scrap of paper with a strange message on it. The words in the message don’t make any sense, and it looks like it’s some kind of secret code.
When Alvin gets home, his mother insists that he clean his room before he does anything else. Shoie helps him, and Alvin’s little sister, Daphne, insists that she wants to help, too, because she wants to see what the boys are doing. Daphne is fascinated by the things her older brother does and always wants to be included. When Daphne finds out that they’re being spies and have found a secret message, she also insists that she wants to be a spy and look at the message with them. They let her see the message, but they insist that she can’t be a spy because it’s dangerous and “work for men.” (That attitude comes up in mid-20th century kids’ books, especially ones for boys. I’d just like to point out here that, while dealing with spies would actually be dangerous, too dangerous for a young kid like Daphne, the fact is that both Alvin and Shoie are only twelve years old, so technically, they don’t count as “men”, either.) At first, the kids think maybe the message is meant for a secret Russian spy ring targeting the nearby defense plant. (This book was written during the Cold War, so that would be one of the first possibilities they would consider.)
Alvin comes to the conclusion that they need to investigate Mr. Pinkney, a relative newcomer to their town, because they found the message near his house, the message mentions an oak, and there’s one growing nearby. Alvin also thinks that they might need some help to break the code in the message, so he suggests that they visit Mr. Link, a WWII veteran who was also a spy during the war. He’s now an invalid who has a housekeeper who takes care of him, but he could still advise them about what to do with the mysterious message. Although the boys tell her that she can’t be involved with what they’re doing, Daphne still tags along with them when they go to see Mr. Link.
When the kids ask Mr. Link about his time as a secret agent during the war, he calls spying a “dirty, dirty business” but “something that must be done”, saying that he’s glad that it’s all over now. However, he’s perfectly willing to talk about secret codes and ciphers. Mr. Link has even written a couple of books on the subject. This story is a nice introduction to codes and ciphers for kids because it explains some of the terms and how codes and ciphers work. As Mr. Link points out, much of what people think of as secret codes are actually ciphers. The difference is that ciphers are actually secret alphabets that can be used to compose messages. When Mr. Link asks them if they’re trying to compose a cipher themselves, the kids tell him about the secret message and their suspicions that there could be a spy in their town.
Mr. Link doesn’t reject the possibility that there could be a spy in the area, but he tells them that they’re wrong to suspect Mr. Pinkney of being a spy because Mr. Pinkney is a friend of his, and he knows him very well. For a moment, Alvin wonders if they should suspect Mr. Link too, but Mr. Link anticipates the thought and says that he can prove that he’s trustworthy by telling them more about Mr. Pinkney and breaking the code for them. Mr. Link explains that Mr. Pinkney was lonely when he first came to town, and that’s how the two men started playing chess together regularly. Mr. Pinkney owns a factory that makes electronic devices, like transistor radios and intercoms, and one day, he told Mr. Link that he had a problem with his business. He suspected a business spy of trying to intercept his messages to his product distributors in Europe, and he needed a way to make his messages more secure. Naturally, Mr. Link suggested using a code, and he recognizes the coded message the kids found as one that Herman Pinkney sent to his distributors. Mr. Link shows the kids how each word in the strange message stands for another word or concept. Only someone who knew what the code words were supposed to mean would be able to read it.
Alvin is a bit embarrassed about jumping to the wrong conclusion, and Mr. Link says that he’s learned a couple of important lessons from this experience. First, you shouldn’t jump to conclusions about people if you don’t know them very well, and second, people who are full of tricks and deception are easily confused when they encounter straightforward honesty. In other words, while Alvin was spinning imaginative spy tales in his head, he overlooked the possibility that there could be a more innocent explanation. Alvin is still embarrassed, but he takes the lessons to heart, and Mr. Link tells them more about codes, how they have been used in history, and how codes are around them all the time, every day.
I liked Mr. Link’s explanations about how codes aren’t just for spies. He says that codes are used for all kinds of communications where only certain people are meant to read and understand messages. He explains about the product codes on things that the kids buy and wear everyday, showing them how to read the size codes on their shoes. Codes can indicate where and when products were made, and we still use product codes for that purpose in the 21st century. I used to work in a textbook store, and we used the codes on textbooks to tell which edition of a book students needed or whether a student needed just the textbook or if they needed books that came bundled with other, supplemental materials. Mr. Link says that ordinary people can sometimes figure out what product codes mean by studying them and looking for patterns that they recognize, like dates or sizes.
Since this book was written in the 1960s, they don’t talk about computers or the Internet, but that’s a major use of codes in the 21st century, and anybody can study and learn computer coding. Computer programming involves “coding” because, like with the other codes that Mr. Link describes, programming languages are also codes, using certain words and symbols to represent concepts that not everybody needs to read in order to use a computer, but which the computer can interpret so it knows what the programmer and user want it to do. Communications and transactions over the Internet also involve cryptography to protect the users’ information, using algorithms to convert a sender’s plaintext message to ciphertext to conceal its true meaning from any third party who might try to read the message and then back into plaintext so the intended recipient can read it. Codes really are around us all the time, even when we’re not fully aware of them or paying close attention to them.
The kids are fascinated by Mr. Link’s stories about how codes were used in history and the unusual methods people used to send secret messages, like writing them on someone’s head and then letting their hair grow out and cover it. He also shows them scytales, round pieces of wood that can be used for reading secret messages. The message would be written on a long strip in what appears to be jumbled letters. The message only makes sense when the strip is wrapped around the scytale so that the letters will align in the proper order to be read. That’s what’s shown on the cover of this book, although the picture also shows a message written with code symbols.
It’s all fun and games until a woman named Alicia Fenwick shows up in town with a puzzle that puts the kids’ abilities to the test. She comes to see Alvin’s father in his professional capacity with the police, looking for a man named J. A. Smith. Miss Fenwick explains an incident that happened to her family during the Civil War. The Fenwicks used to own a Southern plantation with slaves. (Daphne says that she doesn’t like the part of the story about the slaves, and Miss Fenwick says she doesn’t either although her great-great grandfather was apparently kind to his … which is what they all say, isn’t it? More about that in my reaction section below.) During the Civil War, her great-great grandfather was an old man. All the young men went away to fight in the war, but he stayed at home. When there were rumors of marauding bandits, he got worried that the plantation with would be a prime target for them with all the young men gone. He enlisted the help of a former slave he had freed before but who was still a friend to help him hide the Fenwick family’s valuables. They put everything they could into a chest and buried it. Unfortunately, when the bandits came, they forced the former slave, Adam Moses, to reveal the location of the chest by threatening to kill his young son. After they dug up the chest, they took Mr. Moses prisoner and forced him to help them take the chest with them further north. Eventually, Mr. Moses escaped from the bandits after they tried to kill him, and he wrote a letter to the Fenwicks saying that he was now in Indiana and that the bandits had forced him to help them rebury the chest. He said that he would try to retrieve the chest and return home with it, but sadly, he was later found murdered close to Riverton, the town where the children now live, probably killed by the same bandits who took the chest. However, the leader of the bandits was also killed shortly after that, so they never enjoyed their ill-gotten gains. The treasure chest was never recovered. The story was passed down in the Fenwick family for generations as an unsolved mystery until recently, when Miss Fenwick received a letter from J. A. Smith asking her for any information she might have about about the treasure. She told this person about the letter from Mr. Moses but didn’t hear from him again, so she’s trying to trace J. A. Smith and find out what he knows about the treasure.
Sergeant Fernald, Alvin’s father, says that there are people in town with the last name of Smith but nobody who has the initials “J. A.”. However, the kids say that Miss Fenwick’s story might explain some of the stories told by local kids about an area outside of town called Treasure Bluffs. Rumor has it that there was a treasure buried there years ago, although nobody knows exactly why or where. The kids start to think that the story really points to the location of the Fenwick treasure, but the bluffs cover a lot of territory, and before they can really search for the treasure, they have to find a way to narrow down the search area.
The kids’ new lessons in code-breaking pay off when they spot a man at the local library using the code books that Mr. Link donated. The strange man is trying to break a message that will reveal the secret hiding place of the Fenwick treasure. Can Alvin and his friends figure out who the man is and break the code themselves before he does?
The book ends with a section explaining more about codes and ciphers. One of the codes they explain is the pigpen cipher, which is a popular one for children and appears in other children’s books. This book says that it was used in the Civil War, which is true, but it’s actually older than that.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
My Reaction and Spoilers
There are some elements in this story about boys thinking that they’re more capable than girls, like in the way that Alvin and Shoie talk to Alvin’s little sister, but Alvin also acknowledge, to his irritation, that sometimes Daphne thinks even faster than he does. When Mr. Link is explaining the size codes on the children’s shoes, 8-year-old Daphne actually catches on a little faster than 12-year-old Alvin and comes up with the answer to a problem Mr. Link poses before Alvin’s “Magnificent Brain” does. I liked that touch of imperfection on Alvin’s part and the acknowledgement of Daphne’s abilities, which help thwart any overconfidence or arrogance that Alvin might have about his “Magnificent Brain.”
I appreciated that, although Alvin is clever, he’s not a complete genius, and he is noticeably fallible. He’s not good at everything, like some heroes of children’s books. He is terrible at spelling, and when he tries to write that he’s a cryptographer, he spells it “criptogruffer,” which doesn’t inspire professional confidence. Daphne knows the correct spelling and spells it aloud for him, much to Alvin’s embarrassment and annoyance. Alvin is still pretty clever, and he breaks the final code that reveals the hiding place of the treasure, but it is nice that he’s not unbelievably perfect.
The final code in the book is easy enough that anybody could actually break it with minimal effort. I spotted it pretty quickly because there’s something that I always do with secret messages in books, and it often pays off. (There are one or two things in the Harry Potter books that this works on as well.) I’m not going to spoil it here, although I’ll give you a hint: When I was a kid, I read and liked a book about Leonardo Da Vinci.
I genuinely enjoyed the parts of the story about codes, which run through most of the book. Mr. Link is full of helpful information, and the section at the back of the book with more information about codes is a nice introduction to some basic types of codes. As I said above, I like the practical applications of the lessons, showing kids how they can read parts of product codes, if they understand what to look for. That’s a useful skill, and you can use similar techniques to interpret the expiration dates on food products when they’re only stamped with a code instead of an explicit date.
Like Daphne, I also didn’t like the part of the story about slaves. This book was written during the Civil Rights Movement, which makes its takes on the Civil War, slaves, and race interesting. The author wants to tell a story that bears on the Civil War, so he has to address this is some fashion, and he tries to get pass the uncomfortable issue of families owning slaves as quickly as he can to get to the adventure part of the story.
The Civil War and its associated legends of battles, ghosts, secret passages, hiding places, hidden treasures, and secret messages are staples of American children’s literature. It’s completely understandable because the Civil War was a major event that shaped life and history in the US, it was a traumatic event whose impact is still felt even into the 21st century, and it gave rise to many stories and legends that have further helped shape our culture. The idea of treasures hidden during the war and later forgotten is a popular trope and so are coded messages that point to secrets from the past. I’ve seen these tropes used in other children’s stories, like The Secret of the Strawbridge Place, The House of Dies Drear, and Mystery of the Secret Dolls, and they’re always fun. However, stories with a Civil War backstory can sometimes feel a little uncomfortable because they’re almost impossible to tell without involving slavery in some way because slavery was at the heart of the war.
When Daphne says that she doesn’t like hearing about slavery and owning slaves, they deal with the issue quickly, with Miss Fenwick saying she doesn’t like it, either, and adding that her great-great grandfather was apparently nice about it, and then continuing with the story. As I said above, yeah, right, that’s what they all say. In stories (and sometimes real life), when there are characters whose families owned slaves and plantations, they almost always add the idea that, while slavery was bad and horrible and slaves were mistreated elsewhere, this particular family was special and treated their slaves with kindness, and it was almost like they were one big, happy family. Yeah, right. To be honest, I probably would have accepted that as a kid and let it pass. As an adult, I’m not letting it pass without at least a few pokes in the side as it goes.
The idea of the grateful slave or ex-slave who loves the family he served has been a trope since the anti-Tom literature of the 1850s. I can’t swear that no slave never felt any kind of affection for members of the family that owned them because human nature is varied and unpredictable, surprising relationships can spring up, and if all else fails, Stockholm Syndrome also exists, so I suppose it could happen, but at the same time, I just don’t buy that whole “slavery is bad, but my family is kind, and our slaves loved us” type of narrative. Even if a given slave-owning family was “above average” in treatment of slaves, that doesn’t mean that they were “good” so much as “less bad” among a group of people perpetrating something bad. The “average” in this situation is so bad that there’s quite a lot above that level that still wouldn’t qualify as good, whether the descendants of slave owners believe those old school textbooks promoted by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (some of which were still in use during the Civil Rights Movement – children are shaped by the things they read and the people who gave them those books, and history is not written by the “winners” but by the people who write) or have really thought this through all the way or not. (You don’t have to take my word for it. You can hear about it from people who actually were slaves.) I suppose I can suspend my disbelief about this fictional family for the sake of this kids’ story, which is mostly about secret codes and a treasure hunt and spends little time on racial issues, but I’d just like to point out that I definitely do have a sense of disbelief about this that requires suspension.
Of course, I can see why the author had to include it. In order for us to be invested in the treasure hunt and care about the Fenwick family getting their fortune back, we have to believe that they’re great people, sort of removed or distanced from the responsibility for choosing to own slaves (“in those days, it was accepted throughout the South” is the only explanation we’re given), who were as kind to their slaves as possible, so kind that at least one loved them so much that he gave his life attempting to recover the family fortune, and that they will now use the treasure for some beneficial purpose. (We are told that the family now operates an orphanage, which badly needs money, although we’re also told that one of their former charges has since become a US Senator, so you’d think he could help raise some.) If we didn’t like this family at all, we might see the fortune that came from their plantation as the ill-gotten goods of exploiting someone else’s labor, its loss as poetic justice, and the profit from its recovery as probably something that should either go toward the slaves who did the work on the plantation or maybe some public cause, like a museum or something.
We are told that Adam Moses’s son survived the experience with the bandits, escaped from them when his father was captured, and was adopted by another family, but we are not told anything further about his descendants. While I was reading the book, I halfway wondered if a descendant of the Moses family would surface with some important clue to the situation and get some acknowledgement, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, there’s a person who’s related to one of the bandits, who thinks that he has a right to the treasure because his ancestor stole it from someone else. The characters in the story scoff at that logic, but when I consider the full context of the situation, it makes me think.
The Case of the Painted Dragon by by George Wyatt (Charles Spain Verral), 1961.
Jimmy and Brains are on their way to school when a strange man in a car stops and asks them if they know where he can find a Japanese kid. (He uses the derogatory terms “Jap” and “Nip”, and Brains disapproves. Also, the man is very unspecific about which kid he’s looking for. He offers no names, just that he’s looking for a Japanese boy about their age The town where the boys live is a fairly small college town, so I guess it’s supposed to be reasonable that there would only be one boy matching that description. I grew up in a larger university town, so the idea of there being only one person who could match any description and just expecting random people to know who it is seems really odd to me.) Brains just says that they don’t know anybody with Japanese ancestry, and the man drives away.
After the man leaves, the boy talk about how suspicious he was. They really don’t know who he could be looking for. The last Japanese family to live in their town was the Yamadas, but Mrs. and Mrs. Yamada were killed in a car accident the year before. (It was a point in the book’s favor that Brains doesn’t like derogatory racial terms, but the point is lost quickly when Jimmy is describing Mr. Yamada, who taught art at the boys’ school, and he says that Mr. Yamada “wasn’t one of those ‘inscrutable orientals’ you’re always reading about.” He says that Mr. Yamada was friendly and also coached the school’s swimming team. It’s nice that Jimmy liked Mr. Yamada, but the way he says it sounds a little back-handed. I suppose it’s a sign of the times when this book was written that the author thought it was reasonable for people, even kids, to “always” be reading about “inscrutable orientals”, but on the other hand, I’ve read other books from this time period and earlier that weren’t like that, so I’m inclined to think that it’s not really “always” and everyone.) However, the boys don’t remember the Yamadas having a son their age, so they doubt there’s a connection. They’re concerned because they think that the suspicious stranger might have bad intentions toward the kid he’s looking for.
After the boys get to school, Jimmy sees that stranger driving by the school, and he gets worried. Either the stranger is still looking for the Japanese boy, or he’s looking for Brains and Jimmy. Brains thinks that the best thing to do is try to find the Japanese boy before the man does. However, Brains doesn’t want to tell their principal or teacher about the stranger or the boy. Jimmy worries that maybe the stranger made up the Japanese boy as an excuse to get to him and Brain, and he decides to tell the principal about the stranger in the car, and the principal goes outside and demands that the stranger tell him who he is and what he’s doing, hanging around the school and scaring the students. Unfortunately, he confronts the wrong person in the wrong car, which is an embarrassing situation. (He did the right thing even if he confronted the wrong person. I give him credit for that, but they need to have a reason why the school authorities don’t do anything about the weirdo scouting the students.)
In the boys’ next class, they meet a new student, Mikko, who may be the Japanese boy that the stranger was looking for. The boys make friends with Mikko, inviting him to come to baseball practice with them. They want to warn him about the stranger, but before they talk to him about thr man who seems to be looking for him, they spot the car following them again. Mikko spots the car, too, and the boys ask him if he knows the driver. Mikko says, no, the man is a stranger. Aside from the people at school, the only people Mikko knows in town are Mr. and Mrs. Bevans, the people he’s staying with. Brains makes up a story about why the man might be following them because he doesn’t want to alarm Mikko too much and also because he doesn’t want anybody calling the police until he and Jimmy have had a chance to investigate the situation themselves. (This is a selfish move – Brains just wants a case to investigate, and he doesn’t want to share the case with the proper authorities. But, again, the story needs to provide a reason for Brains and Jimmy to handle the investigation without adult help.)
Jimmy’s mother knows about Mikko’s background and tells him about it when he gets home. It turns out that Mikko is the Yamadas’ son, but until recently, he had been living with relatives in Japan. Mr. Yamada was born in the US, but he worked in Army Intelligence during WWII, which is when he went to Japan and met his wife. Mikko had been born in Japan and was going to school there, but the Yamadas planned to move to the US permanently. Mr. and Mrs. Yamada had come first to get established, but they died in the car accident before they could bring Mikko to join them in the US. However, Mr. Yamada had wanted his son to become an American citizen, like him, and get an American education. The Yamadas had boarded with Mr. and Mrs. Bevans and became friends with them. The Bevanses’ have no children of their own, and they are considering adopting Mikko and giving him the American life that his father wanted him to have.
There is one adult who knows about the mysterious car following Mikko: Yama, an old family servant who accompanied Mikko from Japan to the US to make sure that he gets settled in his new home. Yama is a former sumo wrestler and a formidable man, and when Mikko tells him about the mysterious stranger in the black car, Yama says that he will protect him. However, when the Bevanses’ house is ransacked while the boys are playing baseball and they return and find Yama looking around Mikko’s room, they boys start to suspect that Yama may be involved with the mysterious stranger in some way. At least, he seems to know more than he wants to say about the situation because he refuses to call the police to report the ransacking.
After some further research, Brains and Jimmy learn that the Yamadas’ car accident might not have entirely been an accident, and Brains suspects that everything that has happened may relate somehow to Mr. Yamada’s former work in Army Intelligence.
My Reaction
This is the last book in the Brain Benton series, but it’s also more of a mystery than the previous books. In most of the books, it doesn’t take the boys long to realize who the villains are, and the mystery is more about how they’re going to prove it and stop the bad guys. However, in this book, Brains and Jimmy really do start off completely in the dark. First, they have to learn who the Japanese boy is that the strange man is looking for, and then, they have to learn the history of Mikko and his family. Brains and Jimmy do genuine investigative work, starting with old newspaper stories about the accident that killed Mikko’s parents. Little by little, they begin to reconstruct the past and learn why someone is looking for Mikko and what Mikko has that they want. Even when the boys know who the bad guys are and what they’re after, there is still the puzzle of where Mikko’s father hid it before he died.
I enjoyed the mystery in the book, but I didn’t like some of the ways Jimmy talked about Japanese people. I think it was good that he noted that derogatory terms are inappropriate, and I appreciated that he liked Mikko pretty quickly and pointed out good things about him. Those are good points. It’s just that, sometimes, even when Jimmy speaks favorable about some of the Japanese people in the story, it comes off sounding a little back-handed, like when he says that Mr. Yamada was actually a really nice and friendly guy and not “inscrutable” like characters Jimmy has heard about. I can see that it’s a positive point that someone who has been given a negative impression about certain types of people can consciously notice that the reality is both different and better than what he’s heard before. I think Jimmy is moving in a good direction in his attitudes. It’s just that compliments sound flat when they’re accompanied by a negative or implied negative. It’s like the difference between saying “He’s a really nice guy” vs. “He’s a really nice guy for being the kind of person I’ve always heard was really sinister.” It just adds an uncomfortable twist on the sentiment. I know that the reason Jimmy talks like this is because this book was written during the 1960s, when racial attitudes were changing, and the author probably felt like it was necessary to acknowledge old stereotypes, but I still don’t like it.
The Case of the Waltzing Mouse by by George Wyatt (Charles Spain Verral), 1961.
The Crestwood Garden Club holds an animal show to raise money for their Community Camp Fund. Brains and Jimmy enjoy seeing all of Professor Gustave’s animals, but they become concerned when a seal knocks over a creel where its fish are stored, and they see that there is a large amount of cash concealed inside. Professor Gustave says that he carries that much cash with him because he is always traveling from town to town with his animal show and can’t depend on a single bank for his money.
Brains still seems concerned about the money and the way it’s concealed, but Jimmy is hoping that Brains won’t find a mystery that will disrupt their vacation plans. Every year, they spend a few weeks at a lakeside cabin that their families rent, and all Jimmy wants to do is go swimming and fishing.
However, while Jimmy’s older sister, Ann, is driving the boys to the cabin, they come upon the professor’s trailer of animals. The animals are very upset, and the professor is nowhere to be seen. After searching the area, they find the professor, and he tells them that he was attacked by a couple of men. One of them is a guy called Blackie, who used to work for the professor, but the professor fired him because he mistreated the animals. The men were trying to take the creel with the money in it, but the professor threw it into the bushes, and they didn’t find it.
It turns out that the professor is also going to be staying at a cabin by the lake for awhile. They help him to get settled there with his animals, but Brains is still concerned that the men will be back for the professor’s money. The concern is justified because the men later attack the professor while he’s in a boat on the lake, and the creel is lost overboard. The professor is very upset, not just because the money is now at the bottom of the lake but because the money actually doesn’t belong to him. The professor says that it really belongs to someone else, although he doesn’t say who.
Brains realizes that they can get the creel back because a policeman friend of theirs is also staying at the lake and has offered to teach the boys how to skin dive. Jimmy has wanted to learn to dive and is willing to dive for the creel. Unfortunately, the situation is complicated when the men kidnap the professor for ransom, saying that they’ll let him go if the boys bring them the money.
My Reaction
There were parts of this book that I didn’t really care for. I’ve noticed that the Brains Benton books sometimes include stereotypical attitudes of boys looking down on girls or discounting their abilities. Near the beginning of the book, Jimmy’s sister Ann is trying to get the boys to hurry getting ready to go to the cabin, but Brains wants some extra time to take care of a new device that he’s just gotten. Jimmy says, “But, after all, she is a girl, and girls and women just don’t understand how it is when a fellow gets interested in something highly scientific and technical.” No, Jimmy, I don’t think that’s the issue. It’s not about not understanding how someone can find science interesting; Ann’s just in a hurry to get going. She would probably be just an impatient if you were taking extra time to pick out a different shirt or get your hair combed just right. Granted, some of Jimmy’s comments are tongue-in-cheek. When Ann later tells them to stay out of trouble because she knows that they’ve gotten into trouble with their detective business before, Jimmy mentally lists the dangerous situations they’ve been in while denying that they were really that bad. “Women! Always exaggerating!”
The mystery wasn’t too bad. We do know who the villain is from the beginning, so like the other books that I’ve read in this series, it’s more of a “howdunit” than a “whodunit.” Readers get to watch Brains and Jimmy figure out how to rescue the professor and save his money. There is one other element of the story that is more of a mystery than the professor’s kidnapping. The professor says that the money isn’t really his, and the boys see a mysterious girl talking to Blackie. Is she the one who really owns the money, and if so, what is the relationship between her and the professor?
The Case of the Roving Rolls by George Wyatt (Charles Spain Verral), 1961.
Summer has been dull, with no mysteries to solve. Jimmy doesn’t mind too much because he has other things to do, but his friend and partner in their detective agency, “Brains” Benton, is going a little stir-crazy. When they started their detective agency, they named it the Benton and Carson International Detective Agency, but so far, they’ve only solved local cases. Brains wants to find an international case to solve to justify the name. The opportunity comes when Jimmy gets a letter from his Uncle Ed, who has been living overseas.
Uncle Ed is a pilot who has been living in a fictional Middle-Eastern country called Kassabeba. In his letter, he mentions that something strange has been happening there recently, although he finds it hard to explain exactly what’s been happening. He says that, soon, the answer may be coming to the boys’ town of Crestwood, if it’s not there already. The Emir who ruled the country died under somewhat suspicious circumstances, and his half brother took over from him, but the Emir also had a son who was attending Eton at the time his father died. Apparently, the Emir’s half brother has been doing everything he can to prevent this young prince from coming home to challenge his rule of their country. Uncle Ed and some others who were friendly with the former Emir and like his son, Prince Halam, have been trying to help him, although it’s not going very well. The half brother hasn’t been coronated as the new Emir yet, but the prince’s supporters doubt they can get the prince back home before that happens in another month. Instead, they’ve decided to send the prince to Crestwood College, where Brains’s parents are teachers, seeing it as a quieter, safer place for him to finish his education. The prince’s supporters are hoping that he’ll have another chance at ruling his country when his education is complete. Unfortunately, Uncle Ed has just received word that the half brother has sent a couple of his associates to the US. It’s possible that he’s discovered where the prince is going, and his associates may be heading to Crestwood to harm the prince. Uncle Ed describes these two associates – Jujab, who is short and round with a moon-shaped face, and “the Duke”, who is tall and lanky with a horse face and claims to be British.
The prospect of helping to protect a prince from another country is exciting, and Brains has a thought about the first thing they should do. He says that, if people are coming to Crestwood from another country, probably one of the first things they would do is try to connect with someone else from their own country who is already living in Crestwood because they could use some help and support. Crestwood isn’t a big city, and there is only one other person from Kassabeba already living there, a man named Khouri who works as a cook for a wealthy woman in town. Jimmy is afraid of the cook because he’s a temperamental man, and he had a bad run-in with him at Mrs. Willoughby’s mansion. Jimmy’s been doing a little work there because Mrs. Willoughby hired him to make some shelves for a gardening show, and the cook flew into a rage at him for coming into the kitchen. However, Brains thinks it’s important that they find out if Jujab and the Duke have been to see the cook.
When Jimmy is on his way to the Willoughby estate to meet Brains there after his paper route, he is almost hit by Mrs. Willoughby’s Rolls-Royce … but there’s nobody driving it! Yet, somebody must be controlling it somehow because the car deliberately swerved toward Jimmy and then made a turn in the road. Just after the Rolls-Royce almost hits Jimmy, Mrs. Willoughby’s British butler and chauffeur, Frothingham, comes along on a bicycle, in pursuit of the car. He falls off the bike, and Jimmy helps him. Frothingham explains that he’s got to catch up to the car. He says that it was parked in the Willoughby driveway and that the hand brake was set, and he can’t understand what happened. When Jimmy says that maybe the brake just failed, Frothingham says that he doesn’t think it’s likely because it’s a good quality car and well-maintained. When Brains comes along, Jimmy explains the situation to him, and the two of them follow Frothingham to where he has found the Rolls-Royce parked and apparently undamaged.
Frothingham says that he still can’t imagine who was driving the car and just abandoned it, and Jimmy is still sure that he didn’t see anyone behind the wheel. Brains says that he has an idea about it but that this strange occurrence is a sign that something more serious is about to happen. When Frothingham asks him what he means by that, Brains asks him if he’s seen any unusual strangers around the Willoughby estate recently. Frothingham says that he hasn’t, but Brains is still convinced that the people who are after the prince have been around the Willoughby estate already and that there may be something important hidden in the car.
When the boys later see the Rolls-Royce strike a pedestrian, Frothingham is blamed. The boys are sure that he’s innocent, but they didn’t see who was driving the car, so they can’t swear to it. The boys struggle to clear Frothingham’s name.
My Reaction and Spoilers
I liked this story in the series better than the last one that I read because I felt like there was more intrigue and uncertainty. We do have two specific villains that Brains and Jimmy are looking for from the beginning – the men known as Jujab and the Duke. The characters have descriptions of them, and they know that these men pose a threat to the young prince who will be arriving soon. That means that these people haven’t actually done anything yet, but Brains and Jimmy want to find them before they do.
The incidents with the car are odd and seem like they might be unrelated at first, but they are actually part of the villains’ plot. When Frothingham was first introduced, I was suspicious of him because he seems to be British, but the man known as the Duke is known for posing as a British person. Although the characters in the story seem to have known and liked Frothingham for some time, it occurred to me that he could have been planted in Crestwood for longer than Jimmy’s uncle thought. However, that’s not the case. (Spoiler!) Frothingham is just exactly what he seems to be, an innocent man working for a wealthy local woman. In order for Jujab and the Duke to accomplish their mission, they have to establish some kind of identity for themselves in Crestwood. By making it seem like Frothingham committed a hit-and-run, they get his drivers’ license temporarily revoked so that the man known as the Duke can get hired as a temporary chauffeur for Mrs. Willoughby. Mrs. Willoughby is the one who’s going to meet the young prince when he arrives, so her chauffeur is in a perfect position for some foul play.
The boys have all the information they need to figure this out about halfway through the book, but what makes this book intriguing is that there’s more going on than just the evil half-uncle’s associates trying to get to the prince. When the prince actually arrives, the boys ask him what happens at a coronation ceremony in his country. (This is part of why the prince comes from a fictional country. Not only does the author not have to account for real people and events in a real country, but he can also make up any customs he wants for this country.) The prince describes the ceremony, including a part where the new Emir drinks spring water called the “Water of Life” from a special Golden Vial that has been used for the purpose for generations. The ceremony cannot take place without this Golden Vial, and Brains realizes that, although the prince believes that the vial is back in his home country with his half-uncle, it has actually been transported to the US. It turns out that Mrs. Willoughby’s car was originally owned by the prince’s father and that he left it to her because she was a friend of his and had admired it … and maybe because he hoped that his son would also go to her and retrieve the Golden Vial from the car. The half-uncle’s associates are not just in the US to find the prince but to retrieve this Golden Vial because, without it, the half-uncle cannot be coronated at all.
One other point I thought I would mention is that, when Jimmy first saw the car and didn’t see a driver, I thought that, for some reason, the villains installed a remote control device in the car. This book was written a few years before remote controlled cars were first sold, but with Brains interested in new inventions, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. However, that’s not the case with this story. The car does have a driver; it’s just that he’s crouched down so he can’t be seen as well. Science and invention enter the story when they realize that they can find the Golden Vial with a Geiger counter because it contains a special stone that contains radioactive material.
The Case of the Counterfeit Coin by George Wyatt (Charles Spain Verral), 1960.
One Saturday, Jimmy Carson is going around, collecting fees from customers on his paper route, when he decides to stop for a soda. To his surprise, he discovers that one of the coins he has received from a customer turns out to be something very unusual. It appears to be from a foreign country, although Jimmy doesn’t recognize what country it’s from. When someone suggests that it could be a rare and valuable coin, Jimmy decides to call his friend and detective partner Brains Benton and ask him what he thinks about it. However, as Jimmy is talking to Brains at a public pay phone, someone tries to reach into the phone booth to grab the coin! Luckily, Jimmy notices in time and yells, and the person doesn’t succeed in getting the coin. Jimmy isn’t able to see the person’s face, but he gets a good look at their hand, the person’s hand has an odd, blackened thumbnail.
It seems that the coin has greater significance for someone than just an odd foreign coin that they accidentally spent instead of American money. When Brains looks at the coin, he identifies it as an ancient Athenian coin, but he also notices that someone has used modern implements on the coin and a varnish to make it look older than it really is. In other words, the coin might at first look like a collector’s coin, but it’s actually a fake. So, if the coin is fake, where did come from, and who wants it so badly?
The boys start going over Jimmy’s route to try to figure out where the coin came from and if any of Jimmy’s customers have a blackened thumbnail. It turns out that the coin came from Binky Barnes’s house. Binky is about their age, but the boys consider him to be a nuisance because he has a way of exaggerating things and is always telling tall tales. You can’t believe a lot of things that Binky says, but the coin apparently came from Binky’s coin collection. It was a new acquisition, and his mother was the one who accidentally gave it to Jimmy when paying him for their news delivery. That still doesn’t explain who was trying to steal it from Jimmy.
Binky is upset when the boys tell him that his coin is a fake, but they point out that he’s legally entitled to get his money back from the person who sold it to him. Binky says that he bought the coin at an old junk shop owned by a man named Silas Gorme. When the boys go to the shop with Binky, they discover that Silas Gorme is the man with the blackened thumbnail who tried to steal the coin from Jimmy!
Silas Gorme is quick to offer Binky a refund in exchange for getting the coin back, but Brains confronts him about how he tried to steal the coin from Jimmy earlier and demands to know where the coin came from. Gorme finally agrees to take the boys to the coin dealer he purchased the coin from, Jeremy Dexter. Gorme tells Dexter that he wants his money back because the coin is fake, but Dexter denies selling him a fake coin. When Dexter examines the coin, he confirms that it’s fake and that it looks like the coin he sold Gorme, but he insists that the coin he sold was authentic.
During the conversation with Dexter, it is revealed that Gorme sold the coin to Binky for less than he paid when it bought it from Dexter, which looks suspicious. Then, they find the tools used for creating the fake coin in Dexter’s shop, which also looks suspicious. Dexter denies that those tools belong to him, but the situation has now become a police matter. Brains is sure that Gorme planted the tools in Dexter’s shop to frame him, and Jimmy is concerned that Dexter is in trouble because of them. Can the boys figure out what Gorme’s game really is and prove it?
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
My Reaction and Spoilers
This story has the trope of a tomboy girl who is mistaken for a boy. Jeremy Dexter has a daughter called Terry. Terry is one of those neutral names that can be nicknames for other, longer names. In this case, Terry is short for Theresa. When the boys first meet her, she’s dressed in clothes that a boy might wear and a baseball cap, and when she gets mad at the boys for getting her father into trouble with the police, she tries to hit Brains and accidentally hits Jimmy. At first, Jimmy is ready to get into a fight with Terry, thinking that Terry is another boy, but Brains stops him and points out that Terry is actually a girl. Traditionally, it isn’t considered acceptable for a boy to hit or get into a fight with a girl, so Jimmy would look bad for hitting Terry back, even though she struck first. The whole situation is something of an old-fashioned trope that’s partly there to show how bright Brains is for noticing something that Jimmy didn’t.
Terry is also a Scrappy-Doo-like character, picking fights to prove she’s tough and charging in when she’s not supposed to, messing things up. Brains and Jimmy find her annoying because of that, and frankly, so did I. A tough and intelligent girl is good and could be a real help to the boys as well as being a client, but Terry’s a thoughtless, put-up-your-dukes kind of character and doesn’t really add anything to the plot besides comic relief. Really, it’s odd for her to be the kind of character who sees fist fighting as her first resort because her father is such a gentle, intellectual type. I just don’t see the point in it.
The mystery itself seems pretty obvious. Considering that only Dexter, the boys, and Gorme are present in Dexter shop when the counterfeiting tools are discovered, it seems pretty obvious who planted them. This is one of those books where there’s less emphasis on whodunit than how they’re going to prove it. I’m not that big on most howdunit style stories, but this one does have a bit of a twist because the boy discover that Gorme is really only the tip of the iceberg. He’s not just an unethical shopkeeper selling one duplicate coin so he can sell his antique coin and have it, too. I turns out that he’s just one member of a larger counterfeiting ring, and the others aren’t happy with him for drawing attention to their activities. Brains and Jimmy infiltrate the gang’s hideout to get the proof that they need to prove what’s really going on to the authorities.
When the story begins, in 1912, the four Linnet children are in a bad situation. With their father on his way to serve in the army in India with a stop in Egypt, they have been left behind to stay with their grandmother, who is not an indulgent, “grandmotherly” sort of grandmother. First, she’s planning to give away the children’s dog because she doesn’t like dogs. Then, she’s planning to send the two eldest children, Robert and Nan (short for Anna), to boarding school, while keeping the younger children, Betsy and Timothy, to be tutored at home. Worse, she locks the children up by themselves, sometimes in the dark, leaving them to scream.
Admittedly, the reason why they were locked up was because their grandmother had arranged a tea party to show them off to her friends, and the children, not liking parties, had barricaded themselves in a hen house, fighting off the gardener and their grandmother’s companion with rhubarb stalks until they were finally caught. They were locked away from the party guests until they were ready to apologize, which none of them want to do. (Bad strategy on the part of the adults. Some things are their own punishment. Rather than locking the children up, which is cruel, they should have let the children suffer the consequences of their own bad choice. Don’t get them out of the hen house; insist that they stay out there, not being allowed any of the goodies at the party or even being allowed back into the house until they first clean themselves up in the yard. The kids aren’t very good at planning, and I’m sure they don’t have food stores in the hen house. Everyone gets hungry eventually, and it should be clear to the children that it’s their personal choice how long they want to stay that way. But, the grandmother also shouldn’t give away the children’s dog without their consent, so it’s hard to feel too sympathetic here.) Realistically, it is acknowledged that their grandmother could be quite kind with children who were gentle, quiet, and well-behaved, but also realistically, this is not the case with her grandchildren. Frankly, the children are wild and have no inclination to compromise with their grandmother. With all of these things combined, it is clear that life with their grandmother is going to be impossible, and Robert decides that there’s only one thing to do: escape.
Robert manages to break out of the room where he’s been locked up, and he frees his siblings and their dog, Absolom. The four children set off with their dog, intending to walk to the mountains (just some mountains, somewhere to the west – nowhere specific and no real plan involved) and make their living there because Robert imagines that would be a good idea. As they pass an inn, they spot a pony and cart tied up outside, and they decide to appropriate them for some transportation. Besides, Robert has always wanted a pony. Nan is concerned that they’re stealing, but Robert says that they’re just “borrowing.”
The Linnet children have much more in common with their Uncle Ambrose than with their grandmother or other relatives. Uncle Ambrose is similarly unsociable and impatient. Uncle Ambrose was once a teacher, but now that he’s retired, he has no desire to spend time with children again. He also doesn’t like dogs. But, it turns out that the pony they “borrowed” belongs to him and takes them to his house. When Uncle Ambrose realizes who the children are, he takes them into his house and keeps them over night, although he doesn’t introduce himself to them immediately. The children feel much more at home with Uncle Ambrose, even when they don’t know who he is, because his house is a bit shabby and untidy, and he has a pet owl and a cat with kittens. Also, in spite of his gruff manner and assertion that he’s not happy about having children around, Nan has the sense that he actually likes them. The children decide that they’re going to try to behave themselves in this house because they like being there and want to stay.
In the morning, Uncle Ambrose goes to town to get the groceries that his peg-legged gardener, Ezra, neglected to get the other day when the children stole the pony and cart in town. When he returns, he also has the children’s luggage with him. Uncle Ambrose went to see his mother about the children, and when he suggested that he could keep them at his house, the children’s grandmother eagerly took him up on the offer. The children are all intensely relieved that they won’t be sent back to their strict grandmother and her overly-tidy house and can stay with their eccentric uncle, the peg-legged gardener who comes home singing in the middle of the night when he gets drunk, and the wonderfully untidy garden outside, where they can play.
Uncle Ambrose confesses to the children that he has actually missed his students since he retired from teaching. He isn’t particularly fond of children by themselves, but he is fond of teaching them. As a condition of the children staying with him, Uncle Ambrose insists that they allow him to educate them. The children agree to this because one of their reasons for running away was so they would not be split up when Robert and Nan were sent to boarding school. The children just want to stay together with their dog. Uncle Ambrose agrees to this, saying that he doesn’t approve of sending young girls to boarding school at all, although he insists that girls be properly educated as well as boys. He says that he wouldn’t even consider sending Robert to boarding school until he’s had a better grounding because he’s not satisfied with the reports he’s had of Robert’s academic abilities. The children aren’t thrilled at the idea of studying, but they agree to it because staying together and studying with Uncle Ambrose sounds better than being split up or the other alternative, being sent to stay with their Uncle Edgar in Birmingham. Also, Uncle Ambrose is willing to give the children some time each day to themselves, to play or do what they want. He won’t even insist that they show up for meals, but if they miss them, they’ll just have to go hungry. (See? I told you it was a better strategy than fighting to get them out of the hen house.) As much as the kids don’t like the idea of studying, they love the idea of having some freedom. Freedom means that adventures could happen.
Now, the story at this point could have been a complete story by itself – a group of wild, undisciplined kids are left with their strict grandmother, and after a battle of wills between the children and the grandmother and some overly-harsh punishment, the children run away, finding a gruff but kindly bachelor uncle who rediscovers the pleasure of having children around and also happens to have once been a teacher and can tutor the children while their father is away, managing to inspire the children to behave a little better and learn to make some better decisions by granting them a little freedom to make some of their own choices instead of being too controlling. That’s all very nice as a single story. However, in this case, all of that is just the background for the story to come. We’re still in just the first part of the book.
Segue to the Magic
After it’s settled that the children will stay with Uncle Ambrose, they decided to go into town for their first free excursion. They stop at the little store in town to buy some sweets and a picture postcard to send to their grandmother because Nan has been thinking over their time with her and has realized that they were badly behaved and feels guilty about it. The store is managed by Emma Cobley, an old woman in an old-fashioned dress and cap and a red shawl who owns a black cat named Frederick. Emma is a little creepy and she warns the children to stay away from Lion Tor because it’s a dangerous place. (A “tor” is “a high, craggy hill.”)
When the children return to the house, Ezra insists upon introducing them to the bees. The children think that this is a very odd thing to do, but Ezra says that it’s important, and he asks the bees to look after the children. Timothy asks if it’s possible for bees to look out for people, and Ezra says that they once saved his life when he fell into an old tin mine and showed the vicar (the children’s uncle, after he retired from teaching – they’re all living at the vicarage now) where to find him. When Ezra hears that they’ve been to Emma Cobley’s shop, he tells them not to go there anymore. The most Uncle Ambrose buys there is stamps, but neither of them ever buys anything else from her, and Ezra is reluctant to tell the children why. There is something a bit creepy about Emma and some suspicious things in her shop, like the overly-appealing candy and the one postcard that she refuses to allow the children to buy or even look at for long.
As the children start having lessons with Uncle Ambrose, Robert asks him if he will be giving them pocket money. Uncle Ambrose says that he doesn’t give pocket money, but there are opportunities for earning some. He gives them a list of chores that they can do and what he’s willing to pay for doing them. He also points out to Robert that, as the oldest boy, he can’t expect to wriggle out of the tougher chores or leave them to the girls, but if he’s willing to tackle the tougher chores, he will pay him well for it. Uncle Ambrose has somewhat chivalrous sensibilities about what girls can handle, and he also reminds the boys that there are consequences for misbehavior, lying, or stealing. He says that he would never use corporal punishment on a girl, but he has caned boys before and could do the same to his nephews if they give him reason. He tells the children that, from this point on, they cannot interrupt their lesson time with any subjects that aren’t related to the lesson. (He never does hit any of the children and does make reasonable exceptions to this rule later in the story.) It isn’t just the threat of punishment that keeps the children in line, though. It turns out that Uncle Ambrose is an excellent story-teller, and when he starts describing other countries or historical events, the children are captivated. In many ways, Uncle Ambrose makes learning fun because he really loves his subjects and knows how to share what’s fascinating about them with other people. There are parts of the learning that seem like drudgery, but they are balanced out by the parts that are truly fascinating.
The children also gradually begin learning more about the other people who live nearby. There is a black man (called a “Negro” in the story) called Moses Glory Glory Alleluja. (That’s apparently his real name in the story and not just a nickname, to which I say, “God help us all!”) When the children first see him, they’re startled and afraid of him because he’s carrying a curved knife and looks like “a coal-black giant.” They stop and stare at him because they’re afraid, and Ezra tells them not to hurt the poor man’s feelings because he’s a gentle man. As he gets closer to the children, they realize that he’s not as fearsome as they had first thought from a distance. He’s actually very pleasant, and the knife he’s carrying is just a scythe for clearing plants.
Moses works for Lady Alicia (a sort of man-of-all work – cook, gardener, butler, etc.), and Lady Alicia also has a monkey called Abednego. When the kids go with Ezra to pick up a couple of extra beds that Uncle Ambrose is borrowing from Lady Alicia for the children, Abednego takes Betsy’s doll, and she has to chase after him to get it back. In the process, Betsy meets Lady Alicia, an elderly lady in very worn fancy clothes and wearing jewelry. The two of them introduce themselves to each other and explain a little about who they are. Lady Alicia once lived there with her husband and son, but she says that her son, Francis, was “lost” years ago on Lion Tor at the age of eight. She doesn’t explain at this point how that happened or even if her son died or simply disappeared. Her husband also disappeared a few years later overseas because he was a traveler and explorer. She doesn’t seem to expect to see either of them again. This is really where the main plot of the book is introduced.
The Magic
So, now we know that there’s a creepy old lady who owns a shop that isn’t quite what it seems to be and a mysterious and sad old lady whose husband and son have disappeared, and it’s all connected to Lion Tor. The children’s first encounter with Lion Tor happens when Betsy’s siblings realize that she’s missing at Lady Alicia’s house. Not knowing that she’s with Lady Alicia, they assume that she’s wandered off into the woods to pick flowers and go searching for her. Nan finds her way to Lion Tor, where she discovers a cave that is filled with paintings. She knows they weren’t done by cave people ages ago because people in the drawings are wearing modern hats. The artist turns out to be a bearded man in ragged clothes who seems unable to speak.
Nan learns that this man is called Daft Davie, but Nan doesn’t think that’s fair because he seems intelligent and artistically talented, even though he isn’t able to speak. Ezra explains to her that Davie used to work for a blacksmith in another village nearby but some boys kept teasing him and tormenting him because he couldn’t speak, so he eventually went to live by himself at Lion Tor.
The boys eventually find Betsy with Lady Alicia. To their surprise, Lady Alicia seems to be enjoying Betsy’s company, even though she doesn’t normally like visitors. She invites the children to return again with Nan, making an odd comment about how the Linnet family seems “inevitable” but might do her some good.
Uncle Ambrose allows Nan to use the parlor of his house as her private room, where she can do her sewing and darning or just have time to herself. He says that he hasn’t done much with the parlor himself, other than putting furniture in it, because the parlor is usually for the lady of the house, and he’s unmarried. Now that Nan is there, she counts as the lady of the house as the oldest girl, and Uncle Ambrose can tell that she’s a reflective kind of person who can use some quiet time to herself, away from the other children. Nan is appreciative, and she’s also surprised when Uncle Ambrose tells her that the previous lady of the house was Lady Alicia. Before her marriage to the local lord, she was the daughter of the previous vicar, and he found some of her old books in a hidden cabinet in the room.
Uncle Ambrose removed the books from the hidden cabinet and put them on the bookshelf in the room, but out of curiosity, Nan investigates the hidden cabinet and finds that it still contains a notebook. However, the notebook belonged to a young Emma Cobley, not Lady Alicia. The notebook contains what looks like evil witchcraft spells. Nan is alarmed, although later, she’s confused because she sees Emma Cobley at church. She isn’t sure what to think because she can’t imagine that a real, evil witch would go to church. Nan considers that perhaps Emma used to practice witchcraft in her youth but repented later and changed her ways. However, if that’s true, why does Ezra disapprove of her, and how can they explain Emma’s creepy black cat? When Nan studies the spells in the book, seeing spells that can prevent a person from speaking, cause a person to lose his memory, and cause a person to forget affection for another, Emma’s true character and some of the mysterious events of the past begin coming a little more clear.
When Nan talks to Ezra later, he says that Emma Cobley’s father was a black-hearted warlock who taught her evil spells. Ezra says that his own mother practiced white magic and that his family is descended from ancient peoples who were called fairies or gods. Nan had thought that there was something gnome-like in his appearance and isn’t surprised that he’s a bit magical. Ezra further describes the day that Lady Alicia’s son disappeared at Lion Tor. They’d been on a picnic with the boy’s nurse, and the nurse and the boy had been playing hide-and-seek. A mist came up, and they were unable to find the boy. They feared that he might have drowned in the marsh because his cap was nearby, but they were never able to establish that. Some other people thought he might have been kidnapped by gypsies, but there was no evidence of that, either.
In the cemetery of the churchyard, there is a memorial to Lady Alicia’s husband, Hugo Francis Valerian, and his son who was named after him, but the husband’s death date is unknown. The children argue about what that really means. Robert says that the Valerians are dead, but they’re just not buried at the site of the memorial because they were lost and nobody knows exactly when they died and where the bodies are. However, Betsy has the feeling that they’re not dead, and Nan agrees that disappearing isn’t the same as dying. But, is that really true? Are the Valerians alive or dead, and if they are alive, where are they?
Pieces of the past continue falling into place. Betsy and Nan accidentally find old love letters that Emma Cobley wrote to the elder Hugo Valerian … love letters that also contain angry threats when the love wasn’t returned. Pictures that Davie painted on the walls of his cave resemble ones from Lady Alicia’s tapestry. Uncle Ambrose doesn’t believe in the power of witches and thinks that what Ezra has been saying about magic and spells is just superstition, but Ezra knows a few things that Uncle Ambrose doesn’t. He’s the one who knows how to undo Emma Cobley’s wicked spells.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive. Sometimes, this book also appears under the title The Runaways.
My Reaction and Spoilers
A Few Concerns
I didn’t like the parts with the harsh punishments or threats of it for the children. Locking children up or caning them would be considered child abuse by modern standards, although my feelings about that are somewhat offset because they kids are pretty wild and the book makes it clear that they are badly behaved in the beginning and provoked the punishment they received. I’m willing to let it go partly because nobody actually gets caned and because of the fairy-tale atmosphere of the story. In fairy tales, there is often a cruel relative, and in this case, it’s more like an overly-provoked one at her wit’s end. In either case, the children’s situation with their grandmother in the beginning establishes the reason why they go to live with their eccentric uncle and have magical adventures.
Some people might not care for the different standards for boys and girls in the story. It’s old-fashioned, out of date even for the time when the book was first published, but the setting is also old-fashioned, so I think it’s meant to establish the time and place. It’s common in older children’s books and stories that imitate them for boys to be given more freedom than girls but also for boys to be subjected to harsher, more physical punishments when they get out of line. Uncle Ambrose seems to have similar feelings in that direction, although he does give the boys and girls the same lessons because he feels that girls’ minds also need to be educated, and he allows all of the children to have equal free time and ability to play and explore the area together.
As another reviewer of this book observed, it seems a little strange that the children would be so frightened of Moses when they first meet him because they used to live in India, and you would think that they would be accustomed to the idea that there are people of different races in the world. This can’t be the first time that they’ve seen people who look different, although I suppose they could be a little intimidated by him being especially tall and carrying a scythe. That might be something that would be a little startling to see very suddenly until you look again and realize it’s just a really tall guy with a farm implement because we’re living in the countryside now. I liked the warning from Ezra to the children to behave themselves and not hurt Moses’s feelings. I thought it was good to emphasize that other people’s feelings are important, and that comment helped to humanize Moses because, even if he looks a little strange or intimidating at first, he’s still a human being with feelings.
However, there is another part of the story not too long after that, when they’re looking for Betsy and Robert, who has a habit of play-acting, pretends like he’s a Roman emperor giving a command to a “coal-black Nubian standard-bearer”, saying, “Slave, lead on.” There seems to be some self-awareness in the story that this wasn’t a good thing for Robert to say to Moses (who is a servant, not a slave, although Ezra later says that there is a rumor that Lady Alicia’s husband may have bought him in a slave market overseas when he was young), and Timothy is concerned that Robert might have offended him. The story says that Moses isn’t the kind of person who takes offense or holds grudges, and he seems to understand that Robert is play-acting, but I felt like this somewhat undermined the message of considering other people’s feelings by suggesting that the best way to be is not to have any particular feelings to consider. That’s not something anybody can count on in real life or insist that others provide for them. Real human beings are not like stuffed teddy bears, who can take endless abuse or respond to any comment with a constant smile and still be lovable and want to snuggle afterward, like none of it matters. Real humans have both feelings and limits, and this is one instance where I felt like someone should have thrown a little cold water on Robert’s play-acting. The whole story has an air of unreality about it, which is part of the charm, but I think even fantasy stories should be real about human behavior.
The Fantasy
The fantasy in the story is really very light, compared to most fantasy books. Although it becomes well-established by the end of the book that Emma Cobley is definitely a witch who cast evil spells which caused Lady Alicia to lose both her son and her husband, the spells and their undoing were done in such a way that Uncle Ambrose never seems to realize that it was all magic. Basically, the children and Ezra find the little figures with pins in them that Emma made, and Ezra recites a magical rhyme that allows them to remove the pins, thus breaking the spells. Then, they burn the figures and Emma’s old spell book, destroying her magic forever. After that, Lady Alicia’s son and husband both come back, Emma actually becomes a much nicer person, and everybody lives happily ever after.
The pace of the story is fairly slow, which is actually part of its atmospheric charm. For a book dealing with an evil witch, black magic spells, and unhappy people, it’s really pretty relaxing. I think part of that effect is because of its gradual pace and also because there are never very serious consequences for anybody in the story. It’s sad that Lady Alicia, her husband, and her son were all parted from each other for a period of years, but when the spells are broken, they are pretty quickly very happy again. Emma Cobley does try to prevent the children from learning her secrets and breaking the spells, but really, nothing bad happens to the children at all. There is one semi-frightening part where the boys and their dog are up a tree with Emma and her friends below it, but then Uncle Ambrose comes and takes the children home, and everything is fine. Emma tries to cast spells on the children at once point, but the children don’t even notice until they find the figures of themselves later. Ezra tells them that the witch’s spells were ineffective against them because he made his own figures of the children first and put them in the church, so they are protected. Emma herself faces no consequences in the end, either. They don’t have to destroy the witch to destroy her magic, and once her magic is gone, she is so changed and everyone is so happy that there’s no retribution, only forgiveness.
On the one hand, the lack of consequences in the story for things the children do make the story feel like the stakes are low. There is a sense of sadness around characters in the story, but is no particular sense of urgency. They are not racing the clock to break the spells, and the villains are pretty ineffectual at putting up obstacles to their success. On the other hand, it seems like most of the story focuses on atmosphere over action. This little village is an enchanting place to be. It’s charming, and the lack of consequences for the children, whether it’s for being racially insensitive or facing down a witch or even just staying out late, make the story feel like a very safe kind of adventure. Uncle Ambrose, Ezra, and their bees won’t let anything serious befall the children, and the worst punishment they have for misbehavior is being sent to bed with gruel (a kind of thin porridge) instead of a proper supper. Uncle Ambrose told them that if they missed meals, it would be their fault, and they’d have to go without. However, he never lets children go to bed hungry, and he even allows them sugar on their gruel. Again, very low stakes, but charmingly so. This story is not stressful, which is good, but it’s not for people looking for excitement.
I was a little impatient with the children for not making the connection between the spells in the book and Daft Davie even after seeing the figurines, including the one with the pin in its tongue. This spell is supposed to prevent people from talking, and who else do they know who can’t talk? There aren’t that many people in the area, and there’s only one person in the story whose main characteristic is an inability to speak. Even as they’re breaking the spells, they don’t know who they’re breaking them for, like they can’t even guess, and Nan is surprised when Davie can suddenly talk afterward. I think this is one of those stories that wants to make readers feel clever for figuring it out before the characters, but that can also feel a little frustrating. If there’s one thing I would change about this story (other than the racial bits), I would want the children to realize the truth about the spells faster and break them more deliberately.
I don’t really mind that Uncle Ambrose never believes in the magic. The book leaves the situation a little open for the characters, and possibly even the readers, to believe that there are other explanations for what happens. Maybe “Davie” lost his memory and ability to speak through an illness. The children in the story know that’s not it, but it’s not important for anybody else to know. Although, perhaps Uncle Ambrose knows more about magic than he lets on because, for reasons that are never explained, his pony never grows old, and his pet owl seems immortal. But, maybe that’s for the readers to decide.
This book starts up after the events in the previous book in the series, Magic or Not?, but one of the interesting features of this book is that each of the characters takes a turn in telling the story from the first person. As with the previous story, it’s ambiguous about whether or not there’s any magic involved, although the story implies that there is. In the previous book, the characters came to believe that an old well on the Martins’ property was a magic wishing well, leading them and their friends on a series of adventures over the summer. At the end of the summer, they were still uncertain about whether the well was really magic or if their adventures were just coincidence and maybe some playacting on the part of the adults around them. In this book, they investigate the well more, starting the process of making wishes again, partly because they’re bored and need some excitement, but also to find out whether the well really is magical or not.
When I give my opinion of this story, I’m going to do much o it within the summary itself because there are things that I really need to address within each section of the story. In particular, there are some historical circumstances that I need to explain.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
The Story
James Martin begins the story in this book, starting by saying that he and his twin sister Laura normally can’t stand books told from the first person because they often contain characters lamenting “If only I had known …” or “If only I had” done this or that, and they think that the characters sound dumb for not thinking ahead more, realizing the significance of things happening when the reader can, and not taking appropriate actions like a real person would. However, they’ve decided that it’s okay to tell their story in the first person because they do realize the significance of things as they happened to them, and it’s Laura’s idea that each of their friends should tell their part of the story themselves because they all experienced what happened in a different way.
James Begins
James explains that he and his sister are in the same class at school, the one for more advanced students, along with their friends Kip and Lydia. Their other friend, Gordy, is in a different class at the same school because he’s a slower learner. It wasn’t easy for them to start being friends with Gordy in the previous book, but since then, they’ve tried to be especially nice to him … to varying degrees. (They don’t seem very nice to me.) Sometimes, they say that they still have to be firm with him on some things. In the previous book, he was a bit of a troublemaker because he is often thoughtless about his actions and has some rough tendencies. He comes from a wealthy family, and his mother is a fussy queen bee type, which has caused some awkwardness hanging out with him, which continues into this book.
In the previous book, James and Lydia moved to a smaller town from New York City, and they discovered that their new house has an old well on the property that the girl living nearby, Lydia, told them was a magic wishing well. James never believed that it was, but Laura did, and even James had to admit that the “wishing well” did give them and others things that they were wishing for. Or, at least, they got what they wanted in meaningful ways. It’s still questionable whether it was because of the well or not.
Since their previous adventures, the kids have settled back into ordinary life. They’re all getting used to their new school, and Kip and James try out for the football team. However, the kids soon start to feel that life is getting dull. The four main friends who are all in the same class start getting in the habit of leaving Gordy out of some of their activities, partly because he’s in a different class and partly because it gives them an element of secrecy that they feel like they’ve lacked since their previous adventures. They still do some things with Gordy and let him join them when he comes looking for him. Gordy isn’t the kind of guy to hold grudges, and that makes the others feel guilty about the times when they leave him out, which perversely makes them leave him out more because having him around reminds them that they feel guilty for excluding him earlier. James acknowledges that none of this is right or fair but says that it’s just a part of human nature and can’t be helped. He also says that they all genuinely like Gordy, but he often seems a bit childish, and there’s “something about him that makes people want to pick on him.”
(I genuinely hate people who have this attitude about taking advantage of others just because there’s “something” about them that just makes them want to, like it’s not self-entitled to feel and act that way. Besides, I know exactly what this “something” is, and that’s Gordy’s niceness. Other people might yell or complain at someone who’s being mean to them and tell them right to their face that they’re being a jerk, which can help put a quick end to their jerkiness or at least cause them to dump it on some other poor person instead. Unfortunately, the buck tends to stop with Gordy because he doesn’t lose his temper, doesn’t complain, and doesn’t tell others off when he should, and they’re the type who won’t change until someone does tell them off. They take advantage of Gordy’s niceness because he doesn’t stop them from taking advantage, and deep down, they know that’s what’s happening. That’s why they feel guilty, but not enough to stop what they’re doing. This really annoys me because it seems like they’re almost blaming Gordy for not stopping them from being mean to him, but yet, they totally know what they’re doing and could just stop it themselves. If you don’t like or respect what you’re doing, whose fault is that? You could just decide to do something different anytime you want. I found them annoying when they acted like this in the last book, and I thought that they’d learned something by the end of that story, but I guess not. It’s annoying when characters don’t seem to learn anything, especially when they’ve just been mocking characters in other books for being slow on the uptake. I also don’t like it when this type of character is one of the main characters in a story because, as readers, we’re expected to identify and sympathize with the main characters of a story, and in this case, I don’t want to do either. They’re just getting on my nerves at this point, and we’re not very far into the story. Fortunately, this does get better.)
One day, when the kids are sitting around on the porch of the cottage that they use as their clubhouse without Gordy, talking about how Halloween is coming but nothing feels exciting since their adventures with the wishing well, they start to consider wishing on the well again. They’ve thought of doing this before, but they hesitate to do it because they’re afraid of using up the “magic” (even though James claims he doesn’t really believe in it) or cause the well to become angry with them for making frivolous wishes. They decide to swear an oath to each other in blood not to wish on the well until the well gives them a sign that it’s time, although they don’t know what kind of sign they’re expecting. However, Gordy does not swear the oath because they left him out.
When Gordy comes along, he’s giving a piggyback ride to Deborah, James and Laura’s younger sister. Gordy is always nice to little Deborah and enjoys indulging her in small ways. Gordy’s niceness and the way Deborah gushes about it make the rest of them feel uncomfortable. (Enough to change your behavior and quit being such jerks about this? Hmm?) Then, Deborah happily tells the older kids that Gordy has “fixed the well” so it will give them “magic wishes all the time.” Laura, who is particularly protective of the well, demands to know how he “fixed” it, and Deborah says that he put a wish down the well, writing it down on her spelling paper, which had a gold star on it. When they ask Gordy what his wish said, he says that he wrote, “Get going, or else. This means you.” (That doesn’t sound like a “wish” so much as a threat. Admittedly, this heavy-handedness about Gordy is off-putting. I wouldn’t have blamed the others as much for avoiding him sometimes if that was their main motivation, but it’s not, so I still blame them.)
Laura is angry about that tasteless threat, feeling like it’s going to ruin everything. However, James reminds her that Gordy didn’t know about the oath that they’d just taken together and that he only did it to please Deborah. Besides, they’ve all also been more rude to the well in the past than Gordy was. However, Laura completely loses her temper, saying that the well and the magic belongs to them and not to Gordy. She tells him right to his face that he’s a pest, they never wanted him around, and he should just go home. James and Kip redeem themselves to me at this point by standing up for Gordy against Laura. The boys acknowledge that, although they’ve fought before, sometimes physically, Gordy isn’t a bad guy and doesn’t deserve this treatment. Gordy apologizes, saying he’s sorry if he’s caused trouble, but he felt like someone should do something, Deborah wanted him to, and nobody else seemed willing to do it.
(I liked the part where James says, “Stick and stones may break your bones, but names and plain truths and meanness can go much deeper and cut you to the quick.” I like that because I never approved of the usual saying that words can’t hurt you. Yes, they do. They’re often meant to. That’s the whole reason why people say mean things in the first place, to hurt or embarrass someone else in order to relieve their own feelings or settle a score which may or may not really exist outside of their own minds, and it’s just gaslighting to pretend otherwise. It’s just something that teachers and parents say when they want to ignore a situation instead of dealing with it or confronting someone else’s uncomfortable emotions directly.)
Laura goes into the clubhouse, upset, but Gordy and the others follow her inside. Gordy simply and directly tells her that he’s sorry, and if he did something wrong, it’s because he didn’t know better. James can tell that Laura really feels worse about her own behavior than about Gordy’s. She also apologizes, saying that the “magic” can’t be good if it makes her say mean things like that, and she doesn’t really mean what she said. (Nothing “made” you be mean but you, Laura. That’s just honest. It came from you, and that’s why you’re angry with yourself. Deep down, you know it. Now, learn to help it, so I can stop feeling like I need to explain it. Nobody can change your behavior but you. I do appreciate that the kids are now speaking more honestly and trying to work things out, though.)
James clarifies the situation for Gordy, who isn’t into reading fantasy stories like the other kids are. In fantasy stories, magic always operates by certain rules. If you break the rules, something bad might happen, and if it does, it would be his fault. To her credit, Laura says that if something bad does happen, they’ll all be in it together, but if the adventure goes well, Gordy should be the one in charge of it because he’s the one who started it. It pains Laura to admit that because the truth is that she had really wanted to be the one to make the wish herself, and that’s what’s really behind her temper tantrum. Gordy offers Laura the opportunity to be in charge, if she wants, but everyone agrees that it should be Gordy because it’s only right and in keeping with the “magic.” Gordy isn’t quite sure what being in charge means in this type of adventure, but the others say that they’ll be with him through the whole thing.
At that moment, somebody knocks on the door of their clubhouse, which never usually happens. The kids take that as a sign that the wishing well’s magic is starting, and they tell Gordy that he’d better answer the door as the leader of this adventure. The perspective of the story shifts to Gordy at this point.
Gordy’s Story
I actually enjoyed hearing Gordy’s perspective more than James’s. I hadn’t expected that at first because Gordy can be kind of rough and thoughtless, but he’s deeper than he lets on. Part of his difficulty is that he’s actually a very shy and nervous person, and that’s why he sometimes says dumb and awkward things; he just blurts things out from time to time because he’s nervous. Yeah, I’ve been there, too, kid. He’s worried about his friends seeing how scared he often is inside because he thinks that they won’t like him if they knew. His loud and rough manners are a cover for his shyness and nervousness. It pains him sometimes that he says or does things he shouldn’t, but he’s fully aware of what he’s doing and why. Like the others when they’re rude or mean to him, he can’t seem to stop himself. (There’s a lot of that going around.) He’s brighter than he pretends, and he knows that Laura lied to him earlier about having a dentist appointment so that the others could hang out without him. Even though he hasn’t confronted the others about that, he is hurt that they do these things and make him feel left out, and that’s part of what inspired him to make the wish on the wishing well. Even though they aren’t always as nice to him as they should be, he thinks they’re fun to be with, and he admires them for knowing what to do in different circumstances.
Gordy is nervous when he goes to answer the door of the clubhouse, not knowing who or what to expect. When Deborah sees who’s at the door, she screams, “Witches!” It’s a little old lady in a black cloak. She has gnarled hands and straggly white hair, and she does look kind of like a witch. For some reason, she’s also holding a bunch of branches and plant stalks. Gordy says the only thing he can think of, which is, “How do you do?”
It turns out that the old lady wants directions to Hopeful Hill. Gordy takes that as a bad sign because Hopeful Hill is a mental hospital. As Gordy describes it, it’s “a place where unhappy people come for the experts to make them hopeful again.” People from this mental hospital often walk up and down the road nearby for exercise, and mean kids from the area sometimes yell insults at them, calling them “loonies.” Gordy privately admits that he used to do that, too, when he was younger, but he’s ashamed of it now, and he hopes that his friends never find out about that, either.
Since Gordy knows that the wishing well magic is supposed to be based around doing good deeds, and he’s supposed to be the leader on this, he offers to show the little old lady the way to Hopeful Hill. As he walks with the lady, the others follow a little way behind them, which makes Gordy feel better. All the way, the woman creepily mumbles strange words to herself. Gordy isn’t sure whether she’s speaking in a different language that he doesn’t recognize, whether she’s a witch who’s casting spells, or whether she’s just a crazy person who’s mumbling gibberish. However, as he calms down a little, he starts to recognize what the woman is saying as the names of different plants. Relieved, Gordy starts talking to her about plants, and he starts liking her. Feeling a little bad that the lady would have mental problems, he politely asks her if she’d like to talk about her problems. However, the lady laughs and tells him that she’s not a patient. She’s one of psychologists. She’s also an amateur naturalist, and she likes to teach her patients about plants and birds. Gordy actually likes bird watching, but he doesn’t like to talk about it to other kids because he’s been teased about it before.
By the time they’ve arrived at Hopeful Hill, Gordy and the psychologist have become friends, bonding over their love of birds and nature. Before they part ways, the psychologist mentions that she has a patient named Sylvia who could use some help and maybe Gordy could be the person to help her. Sylvia is a little girl who recently lost both of her parents in an accident and has been having difficulty coping with the shock of it. Gordy understands, remembering how he felt when his father died. The psychologist thinks that maybe Sylvia needs other children to talk to, and she asks Gordy if he would be willing to talk to Sylvia. Gordy is often nervous talking to people, but he agrees to try.
There is an interlude in Gordy’s story where Laura explains how she and the others are still following behind Gordy and the old lady, still worrying about the old lady being a witch and what she’s going to do with Gordy. When he goes into the asylum with her, they’re still able to see them through a window, and they watch as the old lady introduces him to a pretty girl with blonde hair. Because they don’t know who Sylvia is and why Gordy is there, they think maybe the girl is under a spell.
Meanwhile, Gordy is surprised at what the asylum looks like on the inside. It sort of reminds him of a hotel. He meets Sylvia’s aunt, who is now her guardian and is an unsympathetic person. The psychologist, whose name is Doctor Emma Lovely, introduces Gordy to Sylvia. Sylvia is younger than Gordy (a sixth-grader) but older than Deborah (a first-grader). Gordy estimates that she would be in the third grade. At first, Gordy doesn’t know what to say to Sylvia, so he tells a dumb joke. He knows it’s a dumb joke, but it always makes him laugh, and it makes Sylvia laugh, too. The aunt is worried that Sylvia is becoming too excited, but Doctor Lovely says to let the children talk. Gordy later finds out that, up to this point, Sylvia had not spoken aloud for weeks, but she can’t resist asking him what “the third” at the end of his name means. Gordy explains that he was named after his father and grandfather, which is why he’s the third person to have that name. He tells her that his father is dead, too. He isn’t sure if he should say that, but he thinks it might be good for her to know that she’s not the only person who lose a parent. Then, he tells her a little more about his life, how he lives down the road, and what his friends are like. When it’s time for Gordy to go home, Sylvia doesn’t want him to leave, but Gordy says he has to go but maybe he can come back. Doctor Lovely says that she’d like him to come back.
It seems like their first good deed has gone well, and the kids go back to Gordy’s house for supper and to talk about what they should do next. However, while they’re talking, Sylvia suddenly shows up. She slipped away from the asylum and came to see Gordy because he mentioned to her where he lives. The kids invite her inside, although they’re concerned about what to do with her because she’s a runaway. Lydia’s impulse is to keep her, but James realizes that they’d have to make some special arrangements to do that. They consider keeping her at one of their houses, but they either don’t have the room or don’t think that their parents would let them. Gordy and his mother have the most money and space, and he’d like to have Sylvia stay there, but his mother is absorbed in all of her social activities and committees, and he doesn’t think that she’d have time or interest in Sylvia. (They also have a cottage that they use as a clubhouse, and I expected that they would consider keeping her there, but they don’t.) They end up calling Doctor Lovely and letting her take Sylvia back to Hopeful Hill, but Gordy doesn’t feel good about it because he doesn’t think Sylvia can really get better there.
The next day at school, Gordy is distracted, worrying about Sylvia, and does poorly in class. His teacher, Miss Wilson, keeps him after school to ask him why he’s been so distracted all day, so he explains the entire situation to her. Miss Wilson is moved by Sylvia’s story, so she gives Gordy a ride to Hopeful Hill, stopping by her house on the way to pick something up. When they get to the asylum, Miss Wilson gives Sylvia the box she got from her house, which contains a beautiful doll that Miss Wilson used to play with when she was young. Sylvia loves the present, and Miss Wilson invites her to come see her other dolls and dollhouses sometime.
While Sylvia plays with the doll, Gordy listens to Miss Wilson talking to Doctor Lovely, offering to take Sylvia. Miss Wilson has been teaching for many years and loves children. She’s wanted a child of her own, although she’s never had one, and she has the time to care for Sylvia because she works at a school, and her working hours would mean that she would only work when Sylvia herself is in class. Doctor Lovely says that could be arranged, if Sylvia is willing, and Sylvia agrees that she would like to stay with Miss Wilson for awhile and see if she likes it with her. (Sylvia’s aunt isn’t really discussed much, but since she doesn’t seem to want to be responsible for Sylvia, it seems that she’s willing to let someone else adopt her.)
Gordy is pleased because it seems like this little adventure is wrapping up nicely, and Miss Wilson even tells Gordy that she’s thinking of transferring him from her class to his friends’ class at school. His friends’ class is the more advanced one at school, and Gordy is a little more academically slow than they are, but Miss Wilson thinks that he can handle it and that being with his friends might motivate him to work a little harder and learn better. Gordy likes the idea, but he’s also starting to like Miss Wilson a little better now, so he says that he’d like to finish the semester with her before deciding. He hurries to meet his friends and tell them what happened with Sylvia, and Laura takes the story from there.
Laura’s Story
When Laura and the others hear Gordy’s story about Miss Wilson taking Sylvia, they’re a little disappointed because they had been planning to break her out of the asylum, and living with a teacher doesn’t seem like much fun, but Gordy says that Miss Wilson is really nice. Lydia is also dissatisfied because it seems like everyone was skipped over in this adventure but Gordy. Laura says that might be because she was so mean about it when they first found out about Gordy’s wish.
For a few days, things are pretty calm. They continue to visit Sylvia and are happy to see that she’s getting along well with Miss Wilson. Then, one day, James is reading a local paper, and he spots a letter to the editor that gets their attention. The letter wishes good luck to the new railroad station, and it’s signed “A Well-Wisher.” The kids are confused because they haven’t heard anything about a new railroad station in the area, and they wonder if it could be some kind of code. Then, they start thinking about the word “well-wisher.” It occurs to them that they are also well-wishers, both because they have a “magic” wishing well and because they wish everyone well.
The kids start wondering if anyone else in the area also has a magic wishing well, and if that’s what the “Well-Wisher” means. They start asking other people in the area who have wells if their wells are wishing wells, and they get a variety of responses, but nobody who sincerely says that their well is a wishing well. Since that doesn’t seem to lead anywhere, they decide to go down to the town’s railroad station and see what the letter means by “new railroad station.” They don’t learn anything there, either.
The kids stop to buy apples from a man selling them from a nearby orchard, and the man tells them that the orchard has been condemned, and this is his last crop. The town is forcing him to sell his property to the town so they can use the land for the new railroad station. The farmer is upset about having to move and seeing his beloved trees cut down.
At first, the kids think that their next wishing well mission is to prevent the new additions to the railroad station and save the orchard, but Kip points out that many commuters, like his father, rely on that railroad station, and the station has been getting more crowded and has insufficient parking. Just like the school the community decided to build in the last book, there is a community need for this expansion of the railroad station. Then, the kids wonder if there is a way to help the farmer keep his orchard even though he has to move it from its present site.
Fortunately, there is someone else who has an orchard and who could use an experienced farmer to help her manage it, and there might even be some romance in it!
Lydia’s Story
Dicky LeBaron has always been a rotten bully at school, particularly liking to pick on Gordy, although Lydia has had some bad experiences with him, too. The whole group has had a couple of run-ins with him just during the course of this book, and when it’s Lydia’s turn for a good deed, the first thing she thinks of is taking care of Dicky. Laura doesn’t think that the wishing well should be used for revenge, but Dicky keeps following them around, spying on them, and spreading mean rumors about what they do in their clubhouse. Lydia decides that she’s had enough of Dicky and is going to do something about him.
Lydia tells Dicky that what she and the others really do in the clubhouse is talk to ghosts, and she invites him to come see for himself. Dicky accepts the invitation, and Lydia feels a little guilty because she’s actually planning a trick on him. However, because Dicky has been so mean, she decides to go through with the trick anyway. There’s a hole in the floor of the clubhouse where an old furnace used to be. Normally, the kids keep the hole covered by an old chest so nobody falls into the basement, but Lydia moves the chest and covers it with a rug instead. Her idea is to trick Dicky into stepping on the rug and falling onto a pile of pillows in the basement. Then, while he’s trapped in the basement, she plans to scare him with spooky ghost noises, and then, when the rest of her friends come, they can all tell off Dicky for all the mean stuff he’s done to them and tell him that they won’t let him out of the haunted basement until he promises to behave better.
Of course, none of this goes according to plan. Instead, Lydia accidentally falls into her own trap, and when she falls into the basement, she hurts her ankle. When Dicky comes, she still puts on a ghost act, calling out from the basement in a ghostly voice and making a horrible face when Dicky looks down the hole. At first, Dicky really is scared, but then his older friends, who are even meaner, come along, realize that it’s a trick, and show him that it’s just Lydia in the basement. Dicky is mad at Lydia for tricking him, and he and the mean older boys talk about what they’re going to do to get even. However, when the older boys talk about doing something to little Deborah, Dicky draws the line because Deborah’s just a little kid. He and the other boys argue about it, and the older boys shove Dicky down the hole with Lydia.
Trapped in the basement together, Lydia and Dicky have a few honest words about what they’ve each done. Lydia apologizes for the trick, and Dicky reveals that he’s only been doing the stuff he’s been doing and sneaking around because he felt left out. Lydia asks him why he didn’t just ask to join in and be friends instead of acting like a creep, but Dicky cuts the discussion short while he figures out how to get out of the basement.
Dicky manages to climb out of the basement through a chimney, and when his “friends” try to stop him, they accidentally disturb a hornets’ nest, which drives them off. Dicky gets out and frees Lydia. Then, they go and rescue Gordy and Deborah from where the big boys had them tied up. Dicky gets a few hits from Gordy and from James and Kip when they come along because they all think he was one of the boys who attacked Deborah. Fortunately, they get the whole situation straightened out, and Deborah isn’t traumatized from the experience.
James admits that Dicky turned out better than he though under the circumstances, but he’s not sure he really wants him around because of the way he’s been acting toward them for a long time (a valid concern) and because he dresses like a juvenile delinquent (kind of shallow). Lydia tells James off for being a snob and not giving people a chance when they try to improve themselves (also a valid criticism). They all sit down with Dicky and explain to him what their group is really about, telling him about the wishing well and the good deeds and letting him decide for himself whether or not he’s interested in joining them. Even though Dicky is a bit superstitious, he thinks the wishing well sounds kind of childish and turns down the offer to join them. However, he thanks them for offering to let him join and seems to be fond of Deborah, and Laura thinks that he might help them out at some later point, if they need him.
Kip’s Story
Kip’s story in particular requires explanation because it’s topical for the time period when the book was written.
James and Laura’s family misses church next Sunday because they oversleep, but Kip is there, and he hears the minister giving the congregation a stern talk about a local issue. Apparently, there is a new family moving to the area, and some of the current residents disapprove and have been putting together a petition against the family. The minister tells the congregation that he disapproves of the petition and has written a letter of welcome to the new family, inviting members of the congregation to sign it as well.
The minister doesn’t say why people are against this new family, and this is the first that Kip has heard of it, but his parents are among those who sign the welcome letter. After church, Kip overhears some women talking about the minister, saying that he shouldn’t have brought up this issue in church and he “doesn’t know his place.” A couple of men are also talking, saying, “Once one gets in they’ll all come. We have to draw the line.” As far as lines go, I’m pretty good at reading between them, and I know that this book was published in 1960.
Even though nobody has openly said it, I knew at this point in the story that these people are talking about a black family moving to the area. The situation is like that of the Myers family in Levittown, Pennsylvania in 1957. I wouldn’t show the video I linked to kids because of some of the language involved, but the woman about 6 to 10:30 minutes into that video pretty much sums up her entire issue with having new neighbors who are black. She just “could never” accept them socially, like the snobbiest mean girl at the cool kids’ table in the middle school cafeteria, who thinks it’s weird and wrong that “uncool” kids want to be treated like human beings, too. She speaks like these people outside the church. I don’t know who the woman in the video is/was, but if she felt like she wasn’t being heard, I think that the way the characters talk in this book from 1960 show that people definitely heard her and others like her and noticed how they felt and what they said. Just because people don’t agree with you or even like you as a person doesn’t mean that they didn’t listen, hear, and understand. Understanding does not equal approval. It’s completely possible to understand someone else’s position yet not identify with it or approve of it, just like I felt irritated by the main characters in this story when they were being jerks to Gordy at the beginning, even though, as a reader, I was seeing the situation through their eyes. Seeing it through their eyes didn’t make me like it better. Sometimes, what you come to understand about a person is that they’re in the wrong or just being a jerk and you don’t want any part of their issues. That might sound harsh, but it’s true. It’s the risk we all take when expressing opinions, that when we get someone else’s attention, it won’t be the kind of attention we wanted but the kind that other people think we deserve.
In the story, Lydia’s grandmother calls the people against the new family “Philistines.” The kids don’t know exactly what that means although Kip vaguely remembers that the Philistines had “the jawbones of an ass”, which he thinks sounds like the situation here. (Actually, Samson killed Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, but I like Kip’s explanation because of the imagery.) Kip’s mother tells him that she doesn’t want to talk about the issue because it makes her “too angry”, so he talks it over with his friends instead. They still don’t openly say what the issue is with the new family because little Deborah is with them, and the older kids are careful about what they say around her, but Kip implies that he’s figured it out. They just refer to the disapproving townspeople as “snobbish”, which is true, although adults will recognize that it’s a particular kind of snobbishness.
I’d like to say here that I found it interesting that they never actually refer to the new family as black at any point in the story. I kept expecting that they would, but they never did. It’s all implied, and if you’re old enough to understand what’s going on, you get it. Deborah doesn’t get it at first, although she does when she actually sees the new family in person for the first time. They are never actually described, but the fact that their appearance makes Deborah immediately see the issue settles the matter.
The kids think that this issue with the new family in town might be their next mission and that Kip should be in charge of it, but Kip questions whether there’s anything for them to do because the minister has already been taking steps to deal with the situation. They consider signing the minister’s letter, if he’ll accept signatures from children, but they also wonder whether magic and their wishing well would go well with a church activity. They decide to go to the minster and ask him about it and if there’s anything they can do.
The minister is pleased that the children care and want to help, and he’s not overly concerned if they’re motivated by “wishing well” magic to do so. From the way he says it, it sounds like he regards the “wishing well” as a harmless children’s game or the product of overactive imaginations, which it might be, since the story never firmly settles it. The minister just appreciates that the children’s hearts are in the right place and uses the reference to fountains in Proverbs 5:16 as proof that a wishing well’s help is acceptable here. (Although, that verse is actually a metaphor for marriage and adultery, which completely goes over the heads of the children. He’s just humoring them here. Personally, I would have picked a reference to the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well because that has an actual well in it and “living water”, but it’s not a detail that’s really important to the story. The important point is the minister is happy to accept whatever help these imaginative children are willing to offer.) He says that, since the new family also includes children, it would be fitting if they could collect a page of children’s signatures to add to the letter. The kids are all happy to sign the children’s page and say that they can get some other signatures as well. They also get more signatures from other adults, not just children.
When the children go back to James and Laura’s house, Kip’s parents are talking to James and Laura’s parents. The adults are worried about the children hearing about the problem, although James’s father says that they might as well know that the world isn’t a perfect place and has its problems. The kids walk into the room and tell them that they know what’s happening already. James’s father says that he’s not really worried about whether can get enough people to sign the welcome letter. He’s pretty sure that the majority of the people in the community will be willing to accept the new family into the community. What worries him is that the people who are unhappy about the new family might escalate their behavior into some kind of demonstration if they don’t get their way. The kids say that they’ve wished on the wishing well, and they’re sure that will take care of it. Their parents know what the kids think about the wishing well, but they urge them to be careful here because this is a situation that makes people emotional, and it could get out of hand. Still, the kids have faith in the wishing well and in the friends they’ve made through their various adventures.
I found it interesting how the kids describe the way other children at school have heard about the issue from their parents. If their parents haven’t all talked to them directly about it, they’ve at least talked about it in front of them. The kids at school generally side with whatever their parents say about the issue, and the ones that are against the new family are described as being “stuffy, hopeless, purseproud ones” (“purse proud” people are people who are especially proud of their wealth because they have little else to be proud of, basing their self-esteem on monetary wealth) or “feckless goons who’ll do anything for a little excitement.” They also mention that there are “mindless ones who never have any opinion of their own and have to borrow other people’s,” and those people are up for grabs for either side, so they manage to sway a few of them. At one point, a bully tries to take their paper and tear it up, but Dicky stops him. Dicky orders the bully and some of the other kids to sign the paper, too, so he’s finally using his powers for good. Gordy’s mother is very influential in the community, and the “intolerant ones” (as the book describes them) try to recruit her to join their cause, but she turns them down. She doesn’t sign the welcome letter either, though, because she considers the entire situation tasteless and undignified and doesn’t want to get involved in any way.
It’s a little worrying when they hear that the “intolerant ones” are planning some kind of demonstration, but Kip comes up with a good idea for a demonstration of welcome: they recruit a bunch of friends to do a nice garden for the new family. People bring all kinds of plants for the garden, and many children help. The presence of the children gets the demonstrators to back out of their demonstration. The new family loves the new garden, and it turns into a big community celebration.
Before Kip’s story ends, he gets curious about who originally owned the new family’s house. After some research, he finds out that the original owner was an escaped slave who traveled through the Underground Railroad. Not only does it seem right that a black family should move to the property, but the original owner had a reputation for growing herbs in her garden that she used for magical cures, which seems to fit with the magic of the wishing well.
Deborah’s Story
I partly expected the story of the new family in town to be the climax of the book, but it’s not. They’ve safely moved in, but now, they’re going to have to live in the community, and there are still people who have bad feelings about that. This is where little Deborah gets a story in the book. The others hadn’t expected Deborah to get an adventure from the wishing well because she’s just a little sister of a couple of the main characters, but she’s in a unique position to do some good for the new family. Because Deborah is still only in the first grade, she dictates her story to another character, who doesn’t identify himself at first but who plays an important role in her adventure.
The three children in the new family are younger than most of the characters in the book so far, but the oldest, a boy named Hannibal, is six years old and in Deborah’s first grade class. Hannibal’s first day at school does not go well. He’s surly to his teacher and the other kids, making it clear that he doesn’t want to be there, and he doesn’t want to play with them. Hannibal’s behavior seems to confirm to the children whose parents didn’t want his family to move there in the first place that they were right not to want them, and some of the kids start teasing Hannibal on the playground at recess, making fun of his unusual name.
Dicky’s teacher has recently made him a playground monitor for the younger children in order to teach him some responsibility. Dicky (the other narrator who shares Deborah’s story and writes it down for her) knows that’s why he was given the job of playground monitor, but he finds that he actually doesn’t mind the job. When the other kids start teasing Hannibal and Deborah can see that he’s getting more upset, she runs to get Dicky. The mean kids are intimidated by Dicky and run away when he comes. At first, Dicky admits that he doesn’t quite understand the situation. Thinking that the other kids didn’t want to play with Hannibal, he calls one of his younger brothers over and tells him to play with Hannibal instead.
However, Hannibal says that he doesn’t want to play with anybody. He tells Dicky flat out that he doesn’t want to be there at this school and that the other kids don’t really want him. Dicky says that people do want him here, and that’s why they fixed up the garden and had that welcoming party. Hannibal is pretty sharp for his age, though, and he says that he knows that there are people here who didn’t want him or his family and the flowers in the garden aren’t going to fix that. He says he also knows that even people who do nice things often do them for their own sake, so they feel good, not because they really like or want to help someone else. Hannibal is also homesick for where they used to live in New York, and he wants to go back there.
Dicky can’t deny that a lot of what Hannibal said is true, but he also recognizes the emotional state that Hannibal is in. Dicky’s family has had a lot of problems, and even he realizes that’s why he’s often acted the way that he has. His family is poor, he has a lot of brothers, and social workers who have come to visit his family are often unhelpful because they don’t really understand the family or their situation. In the past, Dicky has often taken out his frustrations through vandalism and being mean to other kids, especially kids like Gordy, who have more than his family does. However, Dicky is now old enough to understand that breaking things and being mean don’t help anything and often make problems worse. He explains to Hannibal that making friends requires some effort from him as well as the other kids because they can’t be his friends if he won’t let them be, and even though he wishes he were back where he used to live, he lives here now, and he might as well make the most of it. Hannibal is too upset to listen, though, and when Dicky tells him to play with the other kids, he just starts shoving people around, pretending that he’s playing tag. Hannibal is so angry and surly all day that he really gets on everyone’s nerves, and when school’s out, he runs away from the other kids, some of whom are planning to get back at him for how he’s been treating them.
Deborah is worried about Hannibal, so she persuades Dicky to give her a ride on his bike while they go looking for him. Dicky is sympathetic and agrees. Deborah thinks that Hannibal is her mission from the wishing well, and even though Dicky doesn’t believe in it and thinks all the wishing well stuff is corny, he lets Deborah talk him into doing a ritual by the well where they wish that Hannibal would behave better and get along with others. Dicky does the ritual with Deborah to make her happy, although he worries that someone else might see them, and it will ruin his cool, tough guy reputation.
The person who sees them doing the ritual is Hannibal, who is hiding nearby. He is fascinated by the ritual that the others are doing and by Deborah’s “magic” wishing well. When Deborah tells him that they were wishing about him, Dicky expects that Hannibal will get mad again, but he doesn’t. Instead, Hannibal wants to make a wish of his own, wishing that he could be just like other kids.
Dicky tells Hannibal that he should learn to like himself and appreciate himself for being different because everyone is a unique person, and there will never be another person just like him again. Hannibal says that he likes himself just fine, but other people don’t, and that’s why it’s a problem. Dicky says that he can make the other kids behave themselves and play with him, but Deborah realizes that what Hannibal needs is someone to be nice to him for his own sake, because they want to, not because they have to.
Deborah invites Hannibal to come inside for some water, and when Hannibal notices that he’s ripped his clothes and worries about what his mother will say, Deborah suggests that her mother might be able to fix the rip. Seeing that someone is genuinely trying to be nice to him and that people will take care of him here softens Hannibal. The first grade teacher tells the other students to be nice to Hannibal on his second day because his first day was just really hard for him and that’s why he was behaving badly. The second day goes better, and Hannibal starts playing with the other kids and settling in.
The adventure does seem to do Dicky some good, too. He somewhat comes to believe in the magic of the wishing well, although he doesn’t like to admit it openly, and helping another troubled kid who reminds him a little of himself helps him to settle some of his own problems, teaching him the leadership and responsibility that his teacher hoped he would learn. He starts becoming more friendly with the other kids and hanging out with them more, although he also spends time with other friends or just by himself because he still likes being a kind of lone wolf. His personality grows and changes, but he also realizes that he can still be himself and his own man.
James’s Story
By this point, everyone has had an adventure of some kind except for James. Part of the reason why James is last is because he both believes in the magic of the wishing well and doesn’t. He likes fantasy stories and magic as much as Laura, but he also notices that everything that they’ve accomplished so far could also just be accomplished through kindness and thoughtfulness and that there doesn’t really need to be any magic. James likes facts and being sure of how things work, so for the last wish of the wishing well, he asks the well to give him some kind of evidence of whether or not there really is any magic.
One Saturday, the kids go on a long bike ride to just explore the area, finding a sign post that points to a place called Journey’s End Road. Curious about who would live on a road with such a strange name, they decide to check it out. At first, they’re expecting that they’ll find little cottages with elderly people in them, people who are at the end of life’s “journey”, so to speak. Instead, they find a mansion that looks like a castle.
While they’re admiring this castle-like mansion, a blonde girl in a blue dress steps out onto a balcony and calls to James for help, saying that she’s locked in and needs to get down. Laura thinks this is wonderfully romantic, rescuing a princess from a tower, and even James thinks that it seems pretty magical and romantic. Laura asks the girl if she’s being held prisoner by a wicked ogre, and she says yes. James doesn’t really believe that, but he’s more than willing to help. The girl tells him where to find a ladder, and he helps her to climb down from the balcony.
Once the girl is on the ground, she asks them to take her into town so she can get some important papers to the police and stop some international spies. James is still happy to help her, even though it’s weird that she’s now talking about spies. Gordy recognizes the girl as an older, teenage girl named Muriel who he’s seen at dance classes. Muriel tells them that her name is not her real name because she was stolen by the spies as a baby.
Her story gets weirder and more unbelievable, but James is enchanted by her because she’s pretty and gives her a ride on the handlebars of his bike, even leaving the others behind because she’s eager to get back to town quickly. She says that she needs to get to the town hall with the “papers”, but then, she says that they’re being followed, so they have to duck into a movie theater.
Of course, it turns out that she actually wants to meet another boy at the theater. She had a date with him to see the movie, but her father didn’t approve, and that’s why she was locked in her room. James is offended that she lied to him, let him pay for the tickets, and even referred to him as a “little boy.” Angry and humiliated, James hangs around in the theater’s lounge, afraid to face his friends and feeling let down by the “magic.” Then, he smells a gas leak in the lounge and warns the ticket seller. Seeing it as his opportunity to rescue Muriel from something that’s actually dangerous, James also goes back into the theater and makes Muriel leave with him.
Muriel is angry with James for interrupting her date, and then, he’s confronted by Muriel’s angry father, who mistakes him for Muriel’s date. Fortunately, James’s sister and friends come and explain all of Muriel’s lies to her father. Then, the movie theater is evacuated, and the ticket-seller and police praise James in front of Muriel’s father for saving everyone, pointing out that he personally saved Muriel and calling him a hero. Muriel’s father admits that he made a mistake thinking that James was the hoodlum that he didn’t want his daughter to date and says that they can see each other any time they want. James isn’t interested in seeing Muriel again, but he’s pleased at being a hero. He and his friends get their picture in the local paper.
James’s conclusion is that the wishing well proved that there is magic. His reasoning is that, if all he was supposed to do was to find the gas leak and be a hero, there were other ways he could have done it. He thinks that the wishing well directed him to Muriel so he could have the experience and excitement of rescuing a “princess” (or as close an approximation as they could get).
However, James does feel a little disillusioned, thinking about what “princess” Muriel is actually like, and he sees the need to grow up and see people and things for what they are. On the bright side, James has started to see the appeal of girls, and he’s learned to recognize that there are better girls than Muriel. He starts seeing a girl named Florence, and he sees his relationship with her as a kind of magic, so he’s satisfied, even though he now doesn’t have as much time for secret meetings with his friends and the “magic” wishing well.
The End
The book ends around Thanksgiving, with some final comments from everyone about how their adventures affected them and what they’re thankful for after their experiences.
When this story begins, Miss Bianca, who is Perpetual Madam President of the Mouse Prisoners’ Aid Society, is evaluating candidates for the Tybalt Stars award, which is given for mice who are brave in the face of cats. Bernard, the secretary of the society, is helping her. Each of the candidates is undeniably brave, but Miss Bianca notices that each of them also had a self-serving motive behind their bravery, which seems disappointing for a benevolent society. When they stop for lunch and Bernard goes to fetch some salt for them, he finds a note in the salt that says, “Someone please get me out of the salt mines.” The note is signed “Teddy (age 8).” Naturally, Miss Bianca is eager to help the poor boy! Bernard is a little more doubtful about the mission because the salt mines are about a thousand miles away, extremely dangerous, and extremely well guarded. Nevertheless, the Mouse Prisoners’ Aid Society cannot refuse to help a prisoner, and neither can its President.
Soon, Miss Bianca has members of the society trying to learn anything they can about a missing boy named Teddy, but apparently, no one has reported a boy by that name or age as missing. Bianca uses the lessons of the boy who owns her to learn more about the salt mines and how to get there. In order to get to the salt mines, they’d have to go by train, and it’s a very dangerous route. At the next meeting of the society, Miss Bianca asks for volunteers to go rescue Teddy, but everyone is reluctant to go, and many members of the society don’t like it that Miss Bianca doesn’t even seem to have any facts about Teddy or his situation that could help them. Miss Bianca says that, even though she can’t be more specific about Teddy’s background or how he came to be in the salt mines, the important fact is that he shouldn’t be there, and he needs help getting out. Since no one else wants to volunteer for the rescue mission, Miss Bianca says that she’ll go herself, and of course, Bernard insists on coming with her.
To Miss Bianca’s surprise, her biggest opponent, a curmudgeonly mouse called the Professor (his real name is George) who teaches mathematics, also volunteers to join the mission. Bernard and Miss Bianca are even more surprised when the Professor insists on bringing his friend Caerphilly along. Caerphilly is very elderly, but he’s also a professor of geology. Caerphilly has never actually been to the salt mines before, but he’s always wanted to see them and study them. Bernard and Miss Bianca aren’t sure that Caerphilly is up to handling the dangers that they’re likely to encounter on the mission. Miss Bianca reminds Caerphilly that this is supposed to be a rescue mission, not a scientific expedition. Caerphilly is unconcerned, saying that they can handle the rescue, and he’ll handle the science. Miss Bianca says that the Professor should warn his friend just what risks a rescue mission involves, but the Professor is also unconcerned, saying that the geology department at the university thinks too much of itself, and he wouldn’t mind seeing his friend chased by bloodhounds. (Some friend he is.) Miss Bianca is concerned both because of the danger and because their self-serving motives are just what she was concerned about before.
In spite of that, they decide to proceed with the mission, bringing the two professors. They take some time to make their preparations. Bernard and Bianca research the trains they’ll need to take. The Finance Committee allows them to take along the society’s Treasure – there’s only one, a single gold coin they found in a ruined building. Teddy might need this to pay for his train fare after they get him out of the mines. The Ladies’ Guild also knits mittens for the unfortunate boy because the salt mines are reportedly very cold. Miss Bianca tells the boy she lives with not to worry if he doesn’t see her for a week or so because she’s going to be writing an epic poem and needs privacy.
As they finally set out on their mission, the Professor is pessimistic, but the train journey is uneventful. When they arrive at the salt mines’ train station, it’s a very bare and gloomy building. Bernard finds a wooden door with some steps heading down.
At the bottom of the steps, they find themselves in an underground cavern filled with stalactites and stalagmites. There is also an underground lake surrounded by crusts of salt. The Professor realizes that they have entered the salt mines through a disused and forgotten entrance. In the distance, they hear the sounds of prisoners mining the salt.
It’s a long walk to the active part of the mine, but along the way, they make an important discovery – a mouse-sized city carved out of salt! Each of the buildings in the miniature town are unique and resemble famous buildings from around the world. Miss Bianca thinks that the buildings were probably carved by prisoners who made buildings to resemble the places where they used to live. It’s the perfect place for the mice to stay, though.
Bernard, inspired by this strange place, tries to write a poem for the first time in his life, which isn’t very good. Miss Bianca tries to be nice about it, but he can tell that she doesn’t like it. Bernard is upset enough to try to drown himself (that part of the story struck me as rather shocking, although it’s handled so matter-of-factly as just a product of the weird atmosphere of this place), but he can’t because he just floats in the salt water. It seems like most of the members of the expedition temporarily forget about Teddy. Only Miss Bianca isn’t affected by this strange little town because she lives in a porcelain pagoda at home that her boy gave to her, so these buildings are very much like what she already knows.
Fortunately, the expedition gets some help from some friendly bats who live in the mines. The younger bats in the group say that they’ve seen little Teddy serving the governor of the salt mines, who tends to stay apart from most of the prisoners because the prisoners have attacked him before. This is fortunate news because it means that Teddy is closer to the little salt town than they thought, and it won’t be as difficult to find him as they anticipated. He’s on an island in the middle of the lake of salt water, and that’s not too difficult to reach because Bernard has already proven that it’s easy to float in salt water.
Once they find Teddy, they also have to get him onto a train to get him away from the salt mines, which may not be as easy.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
My Reaction and Spoilers
I generally prefer the plots of the Disney movies to the original books in this series, but this was still a fun story. I was a little disappointed that they never actually used the two professors’ specialties. I thought at first that they would use the geology professor to spout some interesting and useful facts about caves or mines, but they didn’t, and there was nothing in the story where a mathematics professor would be particularly useful. It just seems like a missed opportunity there.
There were some funny moments in the story. I liked the part where one of the bats, not really seeing Bianca clearly because bats are near-sighted, comments to another that, whatever it, if it moves, you should salute it, and if it doesn’t, you should paint it. Bianca takes that as a sign that this particular bat has completed his National Service, also noting that being near-sighted isn’t a barrier for bat National Service because, if it was, no bat would be able to participate.
In a twist at the end of the story, it turns out that Teddy used to live with his uncle and that Teddy’s uncle is the tutor for the boy that Miss Bianca lives with. Once Teddy is restored to his uncle, he comes to the house with his tutor and becomes friends with Miss Bianca’s boy.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 