Posted on by TracyC

Winter Cottage

Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink, 1939, 1968.

The Vincents own a summer cottage in Wisconsin. It was once an old farmhouse, so it is well-insulated and can be heated during the winter, but the Vincents only use it for about 2 or 3 months in the summer. The rest of the time it is empty and used by animals, like mice and woodchucks. However, that’s about to change.

The year is 1930, the Great Depression has started, and many people are out of work and desperate to provide for their families. One such family, a father with his two daughters, happens to be passing near the Vincents’ empty summer house in the middle of October, when the Vincents have already long left the house, when their car suddenly breaks down. They were originally on their way to an aunt’s house to stay with her, but with their car broken down, they’re unable to continue their journey. Mr. Sparkes is a pleasant and easy-going man but impractical and a failed plumber. His eldest daughter, Minty, tends to deal with the practical aspects of things. Minty’s younger sister, Eglantine, called Eggs as a nickname, is the first to notice the empty summerhouse and suggests that, if they could get in, they could make some food. Needing a place to stay for the night and finding a window unlocked, they decide that they’ll go ahead and stay in the house. Although Minty has some reservations about staying in a house that belongs to someone else without their permission, she doesn’t have any better options, and she soon gets caught up in the excitement of exploring this unfamiliar house.

Mr. Sparkes feels like a failure because he’s been in and out of work, and typical jobs just don’t seem to suit him. Their Aunt Amy, the sister of the girls’ deceased mother, thinks that Mr. Sparkes is a failure and a silly, impractical man because he’s always quoting poetry, and his main talent seems to be making his special pancakes. There is some truth to what Aunt Amy says, and Mr. Sparkes acknowledges it. It seems like his only real talent is for making incredible pancakes, although his daughters reassure him that they love him and don’t see him as a failure. They were traveling to stay with Aunt Amy because they have no one else to stay with, but it’s clear from Aunt Amy’s letter that she isn’t looking forward to their arrival, and she also would not welcome their dog, Buster. Eggs says that she wishes they could just stay in this lovely cottage all winter, and Minty wishes the same thing, although she knows it isn’t really right for them to stay in this house without the owners’ permission. Mr. Sparkes likes the cottage, too, because it has a wonderful collection of books, including books of poetry.

The next day, Mr. Sparkes tries to fix the car, but he’s a terrible mechanic. He takes the engine apart and doesn’t know how to put it back together. The girls go to a neighboring farmhouse and ask if anybody there knows anything about cars. Mrs. Gustafson sends her son Pete with the girls to look at the car, and he manages to put the engine back together again, but he isn’t skilled enough to figure out how to fix the original problem. He says that they had better call a mechanic in town to tend to it and that it would likely cost them about $10. The girls are worried because they know that’s about how much money they have left, and if they spend it all fixing the car, they won’t have enough left to buy more supplies and travel all the way to where Aunt Amy lives.

When they explain the situation to their father, Mr. Sparkes says that he thinks they should just stay in the cottage for the winter. Minty says that isn’t right because the house doesn’t belong to them, but their father says that it isn’t doing the owner any good to leave it empty all winter. To make it right, he suggests that they could rent it, so the owner would profit from their stay. The girls ask where he would get the money to rent the house, and their father says he doesn’t know, but he’ll have all winter to think of something. When they leave the cottage in the spring, he plans to leave the money in the cottage with a note, explaining why they stayed there. The girls are relieved that they don’t have to go to Aunt Amy’s house, but Minty is concerned that, by spring, her younger sister and impractical father will have forgotten all about the rent money for the cottage, and she makes up her mind that she will think of a way to get the money herself.

Eggs comes up with a possible way to make some money when she shows her father a contest magazine that she found at the last place where they camped. There are various contests in the magazine that offer prizes, like prizes for solving puzzles or adding the last line to a limerick. Mr. Sparkes is intrigued by the contests, and he says that they can pass the winter by trying them. He’s particularly interested in the contest to write a poem to advertise butter because he loves poetry and the prize is $1,000, which is an enormous sum to them.

Life in the cottage is idyllic. They have some groceries with them to get themselves started, and their father enjoys fishing in the nearby lake for more food. The girls find nuts and cranberries, and their father cuts wood for the stove in the cottage. Minty takes charge of the house, making sure that they keep it neat for the Vincents. The girls learn that the Vincents are the ones who own the house and that they have a daughter called Marcia when they find some of Marcia’s belongings. Sometimes, Minty and Eggs think of Marcia as a friend, and Minty sort of idealizes her in her imagination. Minty likes to imagine the comfortable life she thinks Marcia lives, wherever her family lives in the winter, and she is determined that they won’t let her down by not taking care of the cottage or finding a way to pay the rent.

Then, Mr. Sparkes gets sick, and the girls are frightened because they don’t have much medicine and don’t know what to do. They try to get help from Mrs. Gustafson, but she’s away from home. As Minty is leaving the Gustafson farm, she happens to meet a boy who’s been hunting partridges, and in her desperation, she begs him for help. At first, he is surly and suspicious with her, but when he begins to understand the situation, he agrees to come have a look at her father. The boy, whose name is Joe Boles, is carrying a professional-looking medical kit and seems to know what he’s doing as he attends to Mr. Sparkes. The girls are grateful for his help, and they invite him to spend the night in a spare room in the cottage.

It turns out that Joe is also down on his luck. His father was a doctor, and the medical kit Joe carries used to belong to him. He gets his basic knowledge of medicine from his father and from his grandmother’s home remedies. Joe also wants to be a doctor, but he’s alone now and doesn’t know how he’s going to manage to get the medical training he really wants. Although he’s initially reluctant to explain how he came to be alone, he explains that his father was killed in a car accident. His mother is still alive, but she remarried to a man Joe can’t stand. Eventually, Joe just couldn’t take living with him anymore, so he ran away from home. Joe tells the family that he’s been camping in the woods. Running away from home may not have been the best decision Joe could have made, but he’s determined not to go back, and the family can’t criticize him too much because they’re also sort of running away and hiding out right now.

Joe seems to know what to do to help prepare the cottage for winter, and Mr. Sparkes says that they could use his help around the place. However, Mr. Sparkes admits to Joe that he can’t do much more for Joe than just give him a place to say for the winter, and a borrowed place at that. Joe says that’s fine, and he would like to stay with them for the winter, and he would be willing to pay for his room and board with his labor. The Sparkes family is thrilled to have Joe stay with them and help them. The only point that Mr. Sparkes insists on is that Joe write a letter to his mother to tell her that he’s safe so she won’t worry about him. He says that Joe doesn’t have to be specific about where he’s staying right now, but he knows that Joe’s mother will feel better, knowing that he has somewhere to stay for the winter.

With Joe, Minty and her sister explore the area more and visit the nearby Indian (Native American) reservation. Eggs is a little nervous about the Indians (the term the book uses) at first, worrying about scalping, but Joe tells her not to worry and that the locals are just curious about them. Joe worries less about people recognizing him as a runaway in the reservation village than in the town nearby because it’s a little more remote, although they do accidentally meet the local sheriff in the reservation store, who recognizes Minty from an earlier shopping trip to town. Joe does his best to stay inconspicuous.

While they’re in the reservation store, they learn that the reason why the sheriff is there is that the storekeeper’s son is in trouble. The son, who is a young man in his 20s, got drunk, broke into somebody’s house, ate some of their food, and fell asleep in their bed. The young man’s father argues with the sheriff that the son didn’t actually steal anything from the house, but the sheriff says that what he did was trespassing and that it’s illegal to break into someone’s house, stay there, and use their things without permission. He says that, for that charge, the son will have to spend a week in jail. This incident is troubling to Minty because she knows that she and her family also don’t have permission to use the house where they’re staying, and they’ve been there longer than this young man was in the house where he trespassed. When the sheriff points out that the weather is getting bad and offers to take the kids home, Minty panics at the idea of him finding out where they’re staying and tells him that they plan to spend the night at the reservation.

Of course, the kids don’t really have a place to stay on the reservation, and the weather is bad for camping. They are rescued by the village priest, who says that Joe can stay with him, and the girls can stay with Sister Agnes, one of the nuns who runs the mission school on the reservation. (“Indian schools” like this have a rather scandalous reputation these days for reasons I can explain below.) Minty says that they don’t have any money to pay for a place to stay, but Sister Agnes says that doesn’t matter because “God is your host.” In other words, they’re offering the children a place to stay out of kindness and Christian charity and don’t expect payment. There are some Native American children who also board at the school, some because their houses are too far away for them to travel back and forth between home and the school daily and a couple of children who are orphans and live at the school full time.

There is a scene where some of the Indians are playing drums and dancing, but not the ones living at the school. One of the nuns says that the dancers are “heathen Indians” and that “our Christian Indians don’t dance,” although Minty can tell that the Indian students at the school are feeling the rhythm of the song and enjoying it. Joe takes Minty and Eggs to see the dancers, and they find it fascinating. I didn’t like the “heathen” talk (although I think it’s probably in keeping with the historical setting of the story), but I did appreciate an observation that Minty makes, “Indeed it seemed to be a not entirely un-Christian gathering, for here and there among the gaudy beads was the gleam of a cross on the neck of some forgetful dancer.” That observation contradicts the idea that the dancers aren’t Christians because at least some of them seem to be. That and Minty’s observation that the girls at the school were interested in the dancing and drumming but were being careful not to show it hints at more complex feelings and social dynamics in this village. The people who run the school have some strong opinions about how proper Christians should act, but the Native Americans are still maintaining some traditional practices, and some people are walking a fine line in what they practice and believe.

One of the Indian girls at the dance invites Eggs to join in, and she does. Minty finds that amusing, and Joe tells her to let Eggs have fun because she’s enjoying herself. Sister Agnes asks them later if they enjoyed the dance, and Eggs says she did. Eggs later says that it seems like they don’t have much to do on the reservation, with no “picture shows” (movies) to see and not many toys, so she thinks that the dancing is part of their entertainment. Sister Agnes says, “They are heathen, but God will forgive them.” Minty isn’t too concerned about whether or not the dance might be “heathen” or sinful, but what Sister Agnes says makes her think about what God must think of her family for living in someone else’s house. She hadn’t given it much thought before, but she knows God must know what they’re doing, even if nobody else does, so she prays that He will forgive them, too, and thanks Him for being their host. Before they leave the reservation the next day, a girl Eggs befriended gives them a basket of wild rice, and Eggs give the girl her doll in trade.

When the kids return to the Vincents’ cottage, Mrs. Gustafson is there, visiting with Mr. Sparkes. Mrs. Gustafson seems to accept the idea that they’re renting the house from the Vincent family, although Minty is nervous when she mentions that she writes to them sometimes. Mrs. Gustafson also warns them to beware of strangers because, sometimes, gangster and criminals hide out in the isolated cottages in the area when things get too hot for them in Chicago. Joe has heard stories about that, too.

When the family starts getting replies to their contest entries, the results are disappointing. Many of the contests have catches because they expect entrants to buy things or subscribe to things. There is another contest that they hear about on the radio from a flour company, offering a large cash prize for the best breakfast recipe. Minty thinks that sounds better than any of the other contest options because of her father’s wonderful secret pancake recipe, although her father has become disillusioned with contests. They don’t have much time left to enter that contest, and Mr. Sparkes is reluctant to share the secret recipe. The kids end up spying on Mr. Sparkes to learn his recipe so they can enter the contest on his behalf.

Then, one night, they see a man lurking outside the cottage in a blizzard. Minty warns her father not to let the man in, remembering Mrs. Gustafson’s warnings about criminals hiding out in the area and how they shouldn’t open the door for strangers. However, Mr. Sparkes worries about anyone who might be lost in the blizzard, and he has the children invite the man in. The man has a young girl with him, who is half-frozen and dressed as a boy, for some reason. When Minty realizes that the child is a girl and not a boy, the girl asks her not to tell anyone right away. Minty can tell that there’s something strange about this father and daughter pair, and it makes her uneasy. Then, Minty hears a report on the radio about a stolen car and a reward for information leading to the thieves. Is it possible that this man and his daughter are the ones who stole the car? Minty might consider turning them in for the reward money that her family badly needs, but with the blizzard, they’re now trapped in this cottage with this strange man and the girl. The girl, who goes by the name Topper, is fun and good at planning entertainment, but can she or her father really be trusted?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

This book isn’t a Christmas story, although the title and some of the themes would have set it up well to be a Christmas story. It fits well with cottagecore themes, with the family, down on their luck, staying the winter in a cozy cottage and getting by as well as they can, enjoying simple pleasures. There’s a line in the story that I particularly liked, toward the end of the book, when the children put on a shadow play for their fathers:

“What a lot of fun you could have, Minty discovered, if you made unimportant things seem important and went about them with enthusiasm!”

I think that sentiment embodies the spirit of cottagecore. To really enjoy some of the simple pleasures of life, you do have to put yourself into the mindset that you’re going to enjoy them to the fullest! I read a book about Victorian parlor games that said something similar. A lot of old-fashioned entertainment and games are quite silly when you analyze them, but if you just throw yourself into them whole-heartedly, they can be great fun!

The family in the story is down on their luck and has their troubles, but their stay in the winter cottage is still an adventure, and they enjoy it. Their consciences do trouble them throughout the story because they’re aware that they’ve been using the cottage without permission of the owners. Minty in particular considers the morality of their actions and has a desire to make things right with the owners of the cottage. Fortunately, the story ends happily for the family, with their lives changed for the better. The people who own the cottage find out about them staying there, but they forgive them, and Minty finds a way to repay them for letting them stay.

Native Americans

The part of the story that I think is most likely to cause controversy for modern readers is the part where the children visit the reservation and the mission school. “Indian schools” have a sinister reputation in modern times because of their harsh treatment of their students and deliberate attempts to eliminate Native American culture. In the book, the nuns at the school make it clear that they don’t approve of traditional Native American practices, like the dance the children watch, because they don’t consider them to be Christian. They call such practices “heathen.” Their focus on discouraging their students from participating in traditional cultural practices is based on religious differences and a desire to convert people strictly to Christianity. However, I appreciated that Minty and the other children see both sides of the story and that Minty observes that some of the Native American dancers are wearing crosses, showing that the actual beliefs among the Native Americans are more nuanced than the nuns’ attitudes suggest.

This part of the story has some use of the word “squaw“, which is problematic because it has vulgar and derogatory connotations. The exact definition of the word varies in different Native American languages, but because it is considered vulgar and derogatory, modern people avoid it. At the time this story was first published, in the mid-20th century, many white people had the idea that “squaw” was sort of a generic word for women among Native Americans and didn’t realize the more vulgar side of the word, which is why it appears in some old children’s books, like this one. The word isn’t meant to be intentionally insulting here, although modern readers should understand that this word isn’t polite or appropriate. Apart from that, I appreciated how the main characters, especially Minty, see some of the prejudiced ways people, especially the nuns at the school, look at the Native Americans and their traditions and their realization that there are sides to their culture and practices that the adults have overlooked.

Posted on by TracyC

Megan’s Island

Megan’s Island by Willo Davis Roberts, 1990.

School will be out soon, and eleven-year-old Megan and her best friend, Annie, are making plans for the summer. Megan’s family doesn’t have much money because her father died when she and her brother, Sandy, were very young, and her mother struggles to find a job that will pay enough to support the three of them. They’ve moved around multiple times in the last several years while her mother looks for better work, and they get by with some help from Megan’s grandfather. This summer, Megan’s family is planning to visit her grandfather at his cottage by the lake. Her grandfather is already staying there, recovering from an injured foot, and Megan’s mother agreed that Annie can come with them on the trip.

However, before school lets out for the summer, something happens that suddenly changes their plans. One evening, while their mother is in the kitchen, clearing up from dinner, she suddenly drops her favorite salad bowl, cutting herself on the glass. Megan and Sandy help her clean up the mess and bandage her cut, but they can tell that it wasn’t just clumsiness that made their mother drop the bowl. She really seems to be upset and even afraid of something. Since they didn’t have any phone calls or mail that could have given her upsetting news, they can only think that it must have been something she heard on the tv news. Their mother had been listening to the news on the small tv in the kitchen before she dropped the bowl, and she quickly turned it off when the children came to see what was wrong.

Their mother refuses to explain what upset her, and she tries to pretend that nothing is wrong, but she quickly tells the children to pack their things because she’s taking them to their grandfather at the lake early. Megan protests that school isn’t out yet, but their mother says that they’ve already finished their tests, so they won’t be missing anything important. Megan also worries that they’re leaving without Annie or even telling Annie that they’re going early, but their mother says it can’t be helped. Then, Sandy overhears their mother asking a friend of hers on the phone, asking her to put their things in storage for her while they’re gone, making the kids worry that they’re leaving for good and not just for vacation. Refusing to answer any more questions from the children, their mother hurries them through their packing and out of the house that very night. She drives them all through the night to get to the lake.

When they get to their grandfather’s cottage at the lake, he is surprised to see them, showing that their early arrival wasn’t something he had arranged with their mother. Later, Megan overhears them talking. Her grandfather urges their mother to tell them the truth about what’s happening because kids are more resilient than they seem, and whatever they’re imagining might be worse than the truth. However, their mother says that the truth really is upsetting, and while she knows that she has always insisted that her children tell the truth, telling them the truth now would mean admitting that she has already lied to them.

Megan is shaken by what she hears. What has their mother lied to them about? Is it something to do with her father? Megan barely remembers him, and their mother gets upset when she asks questions about him. Her mother seems to be hoping that this whole matter will just blow over, but her grandfather comments about how what happened eight years ago didn’t just blow over. He implies that whatever secret their mother is hiding is the real reason why the family has moved around so much, that it wasn’t just because she needed to find new jobs. Megan worries about what her mother could be hiding and what terrible thing could have happened eight years ago that would affect her family today. Then, Megan remembers that eight years ago is about when her father died.

Megan tells Sandy what she overheard and that their mother is hiding a secret, something that might have to do with their father’s death. Before either of the children can talk to their mother and ask her what’s going on, she tells them that she’s leaving them with their grandfather at the lake for a few days because there’s something she has to do. She won’t say where she’s going or what she needs to do, but she says that they’ll be safe there with their grandfather. Megan finds it disturbing that her mother made it a point to say that they’ll be safe because it implies that the reason why they left home so suddenly was that, for some reason, they weren’t safe at home. Megan also begins to wonder whether whatever danger there was at home might find them at the lake.

Sandy seems to find it easier than Megan to put aside whatever worries and secrets are following the family and just enjoy being at the lake, going fishing with their grandfather and exploring the area with Megan, although he later admits that he tried to ask their grandfather some questions while they were fishing that he refused to answer. Megan can’t stop wondering and worrying, though. She and Sandy agree that coming to the lake wasn’t just a vacation. Their mother brought them there to hide from something … or someone.

Megan remembers that, every time they’ve moved before, their mother refused to let them even write letters to friends they were leaving behind. Sandy says that she didn’t tell them not to write any letters this time, and with no phone at the cottage, there’s no other way for Megan to tell Annie what happened and to apologize for their ruined summer plans. Megan decides to go ahead and write to Annie. That letter to Annie changes everything for Megan and her brother.

Megan and Sandy go rowing out on the lake and find an island with a beautiful hiding place beneath an overhanging rock that’s almost like a cave. It becomes a special place for Megan, and she goes there to think. Then, one day, they meet a boy named Ben who’s also staying at the lake for the summer with his divorced father and has been exploring the island that Megan has started to think of as hers. Megan doesn’t like Ben at first because he’s bossy, but he proves to be someone she and Sandy can confide in when the adults won’t give them answers, and he become a useful ally in their troubles.

Ben tells the Megan and Sandy that his father said that someone in the nearby town is looking for a couple of kids with red hair, matching Megan and Sandy’s description. This man claims to be their uncle, but Megan and Sandy don’t have an uncle. Then, Megan spots a strange man prowling around the outside of their grandfather’s cottage. A letter that Megan receives from Annie says that people have been asking about them since they left town, and Ben correctly realizes that someone has traced them through Megan’s letter to Annie. Whatever trouble their mother has been hiding them from has found them. With their mother still away and their grandfather having gone to town for some x-rays on his injured foot, Megan and Sandy hide out with Ben in a tree house they’ve built on the island. The island seems to be their last safe place to hide while they wait for their mother and grandfather to return. But, when they do, will they finally get the answers they need? What terrible secret has their mother been hiding from them all these years?

The book is a winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

My Reaction and Some Spoilers

I didn’t read this book when I was a kid, but I did read others by the same author, The View From the Cherry Tree and Baby-Sitting is a Dangerous Job. I really liked this book. I think one of the author’s strengths is her ability to create suspense. This story is very compelling. Right from the beginning, readers as well as Megan know that her mother is behaving oddly and that what she is doing has sinister or troubling implications. There isn’t a wholesome or happy reason why anybody decides to skip town suddenly in the middle of the night. I could hardly put the book down, wanting to get into the details of the situation. It was hard for me not to skip to the end to see what happened and what it was all about, but I made myself slow down a little to appreciate the journey.

I guessed, at the beginning, that this was going to turn out to be a case of a non-custodial parent kidnapping their own children after a messy divorce. We are told that Megan’s father died when she was very little and that she barely remembers him, and then, we are told that the family moves frequently because the mother has trouble getting work as a single parent. That, by itself, isn’t necessarily sinister, but after we see the mother rush her children away in the middle of the night and we learn that she has never allowed them to keep in touch with old friends after any of their other moves, it starts to look like a suspicious pattern. I had guessed that what upset her mother while she was watching the news was that there was an announcement about the father looking for his missing children. My other thought was that maybe they were in the Witness Protection Program, possibly because their father was murdered and the mother needed protection from the people who killed him, and that what alarmed the mother on the news was that his killer was being released from prison. That second theory of mine was way off. The first one was closer, but that’s still not quite the situation, although elements of that are close to what happens in the story.

Because the suspense in this was so good, I don’t want to spoil the ending entirely. The custody of the children is the reason for the mother’s panic, but there’s a twist on it that I wasn’t quite expecting, and as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that there are two sets of people hunting for the children instead of one. One set of searchers is who the mother was expecting, but the other set is someone else who has different motives and is an even bigger threat.

I thought it was interesting that the story brought up the question of a person’s right to disappear and whether that disappearance can sometimes be justified. The fact is that it’s not a crime if an adult decides to go voluntarily missing. It’s only a crime if the adult has committed a crime prior to disappearing or in the process of their disappearance or if the person is missing because they’re the victim of a crime. Otherwise, any adult has the right to walk away from their old life, cut off old relationships, change their name, and reestablish their identity somewhere else. People can do this for a variety of reasons, but it usually has something to do with overwhelming problems in the person’s life, mental health issues, and/or abusive relationships. It occurred to me that the mother in the story might be afraid of her ex-husband because he was abusive, and she was afraid of what he might do to the kids if she had to either give him custody of them or share custody with them. Again, that’s not quite the case here, although I was thinking about it through a good part of the story because it would explain the mother’s behavior.

If the mother was a non-custodial parent or had violated custody arrangements with the children’s father, then she would have committed a crime by taking the children. However, that doesn’t turn out to be the case here. The mother hasn’t committed any crime, but the fact that she has the children with her is the reason why someone is looking for them. Missing children is a matter of legal concern and can be a matter of humanitarian concern, although even then, the issue can be complicated. Not all runaway children are “saved” by being found or returned to legal guardians, and some of them have had very good reasons for leaving toxic or abusive home environments. The sad fact of real life is that, sometimes, the people who are searching for missing children can be the very threats those children are escaping. People who disappear have reasons for doing so, but giving them the type of help they need means discovering what those reasons are.

To be honest, I’m not completely sure of the legality of the person looking for the particular children in the story or publicizing their search for them, but it is telling that this individual is using a private investigator to look for them, not the official police. The official police are not looking for the family because the mother hasn’t committed a crime. She is their real mother and has legal custody of the children. The person who is searching for the children does not. When their mother reveals the truth to the children, Megan is forced to consider that a person might have good reasons or at least a compelling motive for wanting to get away from their past and not be found by people who are looking for them.

Part of the issue related to that is that Megan and her brother Sandy were never consulted about whether or not they wanted to separate from their old life or to live the kind of lifestyle they’ve been living. Up to this point, they’ve taken for granted that they’ve had to move and lose contact with friends repeatedly because their mom needed to look for work and had trouble finding jobs as a single parent. When they realize that what’s been happening to their family isn’t normal, that their lives have been disrupted, and that their mother has lied to them about important pieces of their past and even their own identities, the children are understandably shocked and upset. Megan is angry with her mother for the position she’s put them in, and she is right that she needs answers.

Fortunately, things do work out for the best for the kids and their mother in the end. It is a relief that the mother has not actually committed a crime because of what she’s doing. She apologizes to the kids for not explaining things to them sooner, but she explains that, when the whole thing started, they were only little toddlers and couldn’t understand the seriousness of what was happening or what was at stake for them. When Megan learns the full truth, she does come to understand her mother’s motives, and she realizes that it has also changed the way she’s always felt about her father, whose life and death turn out to be very different from what she’s always assumed. Perhaps, if she had found out the truth earlier, when she was much younger, it would have been harder for her to take. Now that she and her brother are old enough to speak up for themselves and the situation they were running from has changed somewhat, things are likely to be much better for them. We’re not entirely sure at the end how things will be for their family or where they will be living, but it seems like their days of hiding and running are over.

The addition of Ben as a character not only gives Megan and Sandy an ally during their worries and evading the people searching for them, but he also provides a different perspective on their situation, in more ways than one. While Megan struggles to come to terms with her family’s secrets and the idea that both she and her family are not quite what she’s always believed they are, she also considers how her situation compares to Ben’s situation with his family.

Ben isn’t a happy kid. He’s been in trouble at different schools and behaves badly because he’s deeply troubled about his parents’ divorce and his mother’s remarriage to a man who isn’t thrilled to be his stepfather. Part of Ben’s troubles with his parents and stepfather are because he’s been acting out, and they don’t know how to deal with him, but deep down, he feels like his parents don’t love him. In fact, he admits that he’s been getting into trouble at school on purpose to get his parents’ attention. He had hoped that things would be better while he was staying with his father over the summer, but his father is a writer and absorbed in his work. He doesn’t seem to care much about what Ben does as long as he doesn’t disturb him while he’s writing. Ben feels like neither of his parents really loves him or wants him.

One thing that Megan has always been sure of is that her mother loves her, and even though her mother hasn’t told her the truth about everything before, Megan can tell that she still cares about her, takes time for her, and does things to ensure her safety. Megan’s family has their problems, but they are still a family. Even though Ben still has two parents and a stepfather, he doesn’t feel like he’s part of a family or that he can really rely on his parents. Megan’s realization that she feels very differently about her mother is part of what convinces her to listen to her mother and understand her side of the story.

Things start working out for Ben by the end of the story, too. He admits that he knows the way his dad acts is because he’s also upset about the divorce. He hadn’t really wanted to divorce his wife, but Ben’s mother wanted to marry someone else. He also hasn’t meant to neglect Ben. He’s just been preoccupied. Before the end of the story, he finishes the book he’s been working on and apologizes to Ben about being so busy. He’s not a bad father, and he and Ben usually get along better with each other. Now that he’s finished with his project and has more time to concentrate on Ben, Ben will get more attention. Ben also reassures Megan and Sandy, who are worried about how other people will look at them when the truth about their family’s past gets out, that he doesn’t see them any differently because of what he knows and that real friends will know and like them for who they are, not judge them for what their family members did.

Posted on by TracyC

Dig for a Treasure

Dig for a Treasure by Dean Marshall, 1949.

This is the second book in The Invisible Island series. It begins with the arrival of the Lennox family and their two children, Hugh and Barbie. The Lennox family has been staying with various relatives since the father got out of the army, but now, they’ve found a house to rent in the small town of Anchorage, Connecticut. The children are looking forward to having a yard to play in, and the mother wants to have a garden.

Unfortunately, when they arrive they are shocked to see that the house they were going to rent has been destroyed by fire. Their landlord, Mr. Prentice, is also on the scene, and he regretfully tells them that the fire just happened, although they don’t know the cause, and that there are no other houses in the area to rent. At first, they think that they will have to go back to staying with relatives, but Mrs. Lennox says firmly that they won’t. The family has had enough of staying with relatives, and they desperately need a place of their own. It’s summer, so her idea is that they can camp out on the property of the burned house for a few months while they look around for another place to rent. The children are excited about the idea of a camp-out. Mr. Prentice says that he wouldn’t have any problem with the family camping on the land, and he returns their rent deposit to them, saying that they can stay at his house that night and get some camping equipment the next day.

While Hugh and Barbie are exploring the area and looking for their cat, who ran off, they meet the children from the first book in the series. Hugh is about the age of David Guthrie, and Barbie is about the same age as Winkie Guthrie, the youngest of the children who play on the island they call “The Invisible Island.” Since the previous book in the series, they have finished their stone hut, and it has a grass and sod roof and four built-in beds for the four Guthrie children. Mr. Guthrie is an architect, and he helped the children build the house.

Hugh and Barbie admire the hut, and they say that they wish they had a stone house like that because it couldn’t catch fire. They explain to the other children what happened to the house that their family was going to rent, and they ask the children if they would consider renting the stone hut to their family until they can find another place to live. Mr. Lennox isn’t really happy about the idea of camping in tents because he lived out of tents when he was in the army.

At first, the Guthrie children and the Leigh children aren’t sure that they want to rent out their stone hut. They spend a lot of time there, and they’ve been trying to save up money to add improvements. The hut really belongs to the Guthries, who built it, but they want to add an extra room for the Leighs. However, after thinking it over, they realize that they can earn more money as rent from the Lennox family than they can by just doing chores, and while the Lennox family stays in the hut, they can camp out on other parts of their little island, like the woods that they call “Sherwood Forest.”

Since the little hut is just a one-room hut with no bathroom or other amenities, the children aren’t sure at first whether the Lennox adults would want to stay there or not. However, staying in a stone hut does sound better than in a tent, where they would also have no bathroom or amenities. Mr. Lennox is also intrigued by the pond, where he can go fishing. The children and the Lennox family talk things over with Mr. Prentice and the Guthrie children’s parents, and they all agree to renting the stone hut to the Lennox family.

The Lennox family still isn’t sure whether or not they’ll find another house for sale or rent in the area. They want to stay in the area because Mr. Lennox has a job nearby and Mrs. Lennox knows that some of her ancestors used to live in the area, although she doesn’t know much about them. However, Anchorage is a small town, and most of the houses already have people living in them. There is only one empty house in the area, but the owner has always refused to rent it or sell it. Mr. Prentice explains that the owner believes that there is a treasure in the house or nearby, a necklace that once belonged to a queen, and she’s been looking for it for years. Mr. Prentice doesn’t think that there really is a necklace or, if there once was, it’s probably long gone, but the owner insists that it exists and is still there, somewhere.

The children are fascinated, and they ask Mr. Prentice to tell them the story of the queen’s necklace. He says that during the time of Queen Elizabeth (Tudor), the ancestors of the Winthrop family who owned the house did something for Queen Elizabeth that caused her to reward them with a golden necklace that was passed down through the family for generations. When the Winthrops came to the colonies in America around 1650, they brought that necklace with them. However, when they came to this area and settled there, they had problems with the local Indians (Native Americans).

Mr. Prentice says that he can’t blame the American Indians for resenting strangers coming and taking over their lands and hunting grounds or for them trying to stand up for their rights, but the situation escalated with increasing violence. David Guthrie protests that American Indians scalped people and that, if he’d been there at the time, he’d “show them.” Mr. Prentice explains that was exactly the problem – everybody who was there at the time thought he’d “show them”, and that’s why the violence escalated. As for the scalping, Mr. Prentice says that white people committed their share of atrocities, too, and when David is older and learns more about it, he might not feel so proud of his side in this battle. (I thought that was an amazingly honest and self-aware interlude about European colonization and its effects on Native Americans for a book written in the late 1940s, when cowboy and western shows were becoming popular, and American Indians were mainly portrayed as violent enemies to be defeated. I was a little concerned at first when “Indians” entered the story, but I was relieved that the author took this attitude.)

Continuing with the local legend, Mr. Prentice explains that the colonists received warning one day that the local tribe was going to attack. In preparation for the attack, some families hid valuable items that they didn’t want stolen or destroyed in the coming battle. Some people buried valuables, and others hid their valuables in wells or caves. Presumably, the Winthrops hid their necklace, called the Queen’s Chain, during this time, but nobody really knows what happened to it. The colonists fled the area, and the American Indians burned the entire village to the ground. Every man-made structure was destroyed during this attack. Although people later returned to the area and rebuilt the town, it’s unknown what valuables they retrieved or when or if they ever retrieved them from their hiding places. Because all the buildings and some of the trees were burned, many landmarks were destroyed, so some people might not have found their hidden valuables again, even if they managed to return to look for them.

Mr. Prentice is related to the Winthrop family, and so is his cousin, Lizzie, who currently owns the rebuilt house known as the Winthrop house. Lizzie is firmly convinced that the Queen’s Chain is still there, somewhere. She thinks it was never hidden during the attack that destroyed the first house and was passed down through the family but hidden by a later generation, which is why she won’t sell or rent the house. Mr. Prentice, on the other hand, thinks that the necklace is lost forever. He thinks that either the necklace was hidden with other valuables that were never retrieved after the attack or that the family found the necklace and sold it to get money to rebuild the farm that was destroyed. Mrs. Prentice, on the other hand, sides with Lizzie, saying that nobody in the Winthrop family would have sold the necklace because it was part of a family trust.

The children are fascinated by the story, and they immediately begin thinking about searching for the necklace themselves. They talk to Miss Lizzie about the story Mr. Prentice told them and use some of the descriptions that she gives them of the old Winthrop property and the plants that once grew in their herb garden to see if they can pinpoint the exact location of the original house and the hiding place that the Winthrops might have used for their valuables. Even though everything manmade was destroyed in the attack, some plants have a way of coming back, and the remains of the old herb garden might still be there, even almost 300 years later.

The treasure hunt takes on greater importance when the Guthrie children learn that their family might not be able to buy the island from Mr. Prentice. Mr. Prentice is also the Guthrie family’s landlord, and the family has been saving up to buy their house from him. They had also hoped to be able to buy the island where the children have been spending so much time, but Mr. Prentice is reluctant to sell it. Lumber is valuable, and he’s thinking of cutting down the pine trees on the island to sell the wood. The children are horrified at the thought that their beloved “Sherwood Forest” might be cut down! Perhaps, if they can find the missing treasure, they can persuade Mr. Prentice to sell the land to them and Miss Lizzie to rent her house to the Lennox family.

The book is available to borrow and read online through Internet Archive (in audio form!).

My Reaction and Some Spoilers

There isn’t as much imaginary play as “castaways” in this book as their was in the first book in the series, but the theme still shows up in some ways. The kids still go camping on the island. They use tents when the Lennox family is living in their hut. The children’s search for treasure also offers plenty of outdoor adventure, and I really enjoyed the element of mystery in the story.

The children approach the treasure hunt from the assumption that the necklace is still hidden wherever the Winthrops hid their valuables. They do find that spot and recover some relics of the 17th century, but the necklace is not among them. Readers probably won’t guess exactly where the necklace has really been hidden, but there are a few clues to notice along the way. Mrs. Lennox says at the beginning that her ancestors were from this town, even though she doesn’t know much about them. I had guessed that they might have a connection to the Winthrops, especially when Miss Lizzie explains that the name of the girl who hid the family’s valuables before the attack was Elizabeth, and there are other Elizabeths in the family. Besides Miss Lizzie, Mrs. Lennox is called “Betty” when her husband addresses her by her first name, and Betty is another nickname for Elizabeth. When Barbie recognizes something that Miss Lizzie has as being like something her family owns, Miss Lizzie realizes that the Lennox family is related to her. By comparing what each of them has and what Miss Lizzie knows about their family, they figure out what really happened to the necklace. It not only solves the mystery of the necklace, but once Miss Lizzie realizes that the members of the Lennox family are relatives, she’s happy to have them living in the old Winthrop house.

The problem of what will happen to the children’s island and the trees on it is solved when the children win a bet with Mr. Prentice. In the first book, the children called their island “The Invisible Island” because it isn’t obvious at first that it really is an island, surrounded by water on all sides. So far, the children have kept the knowledge to themselves and their parents. When the children accidentally refer to the island in Mr. Prentice’s presence and realize that Mr. Prentice isn’t aware that it’s really an island, they start to explain. Mr. Prentice can’t believe that there’s actually an island on his land, and he says that he will give up ownership if they can prove that it’s really an island. The children easily demonstrate that it’s truly an island, showing him all of the waterways and bodies of water around it, and Mr. Prentice says that they’ve won. The Guthries end up with control of the island and the trees on it.

Posted on by TracyC · 3 Comments

Mandy

Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards, 1971.

At St. Martin’s Orphanage, there are usually about 30 children at a time, and the matron does her best to nurture her parentless charges. Mandy is a ten-year-old girl who has lived in the orphanage her entire life. She is intelligent, and she loves reading and daydreaming. She is allowed to work part time at a grocery store, and she spends most of her money buying books. She also loves nature and taking walks by herself. She enjoys spending time alone because she likes to daydream and admire flowers and other beauties of the natural world.

However, Mandy isn’t really happy, either. Even though the orphanage is kind to her, she gets along well with the other orphans, and she has her books and other things to keep herself busy, she is lonely and still misses having parents and the family life she’s never known. Because she has no memory of these things, it’s difficult to say whether she truly understands what she’s missing, but she definitely feels the lack of them in her life. As she gets older, she begins to feel more and more melancholy about it. She knows only that something is missing from her life, and she becomes more desperate about it. She craves a place that she can call her own, a place where she really belongs.

There is a wall behind the orphanage, and Mandy, with her vivid imagination, becomes increasingly curious about what’s on the other side of the wall. She asks Ellie, the maid at the orphanage about it, but as far as Ellie knows, it’s just more of the countryside. She’s never actually explored it herself. Mandy likes to imagine that there might be a castle and a unicorn beyond the wall.

One day, Mandy decides to try climbing over the wall to see for herself. What she sees is an apple orchard and a path through it. When she climbs down from the wall and follows the path, she finds an old, disused cottage with the remains of a garden. The cottage is empty of furniture. Mandy lets herself into the cottage and finds it dusty and in need of repair, and there’s no sign than anyone has been there for years. However, there is a marvelous room in the small house that is decorated with real seashells! Mandy is fascinated, and she wonders who used to live there.

The idea comes to Mandy that she could “adopt” the house and care for it as if it was her own. Obviously, nobody has been there for a long time, and nobody would know or care if she cleaned it up, but she would feel good, having a place of her own and something to care for. When she returns to the orphanage, Ellie tells her that she asked the matron what was on the other side of the wall, and she says that it’s a large, old estate, where nobody lives anymore. Mandy is pleased with that because, if no one lives on the estate where the cottage is, there will be no one to notice when she goes to visit the cottage.

She asks for gardening advice from the gardener at the orphanage without telling him exactly why she wants to know, and he even lets her borrow some tools. Mandy loves tending to her very own garden, and she uses some of her pocket money from the grocery store to buy seeds for the garden and some things for the house. Mandy loves seeing how the cottage and garden improve under her care, but her roommate, Sue, begins to wonder where she keeps disappearing to, and the adults begin to wonder what she is doing with the things she buys and borrows.

The matron tells Mandy that she’s worried about what Mandy is doing because it could be dangerous for her to go off alone where nobody knows where she’s going. Mandy lies to her, saying that she had a project of making a garden for herself but that she gave it up because it was too much work. The matron says that she understands why she would want to have a place to call her own and offers her a spot in the orphanage garden to tend as her own. Mandy feels terrible about lying to the matron, but the thought that the matron might make her give up the special place she’s found because it doesn’t really belong to her or because it’s too dangerous for her to go there alone is just too much.

As the seasons change, Mandy enjoys slipping away to her cottage whenever she can, working in her garden and watching the animals that live nearby. However, the matron has become increasingly suspicious of Mandy’s odd behavior, Sue is angry with her for keeping secrets from her, and there are signs that someone has been at the cottage while she wasn’t there. There are footprints outside the cottage and the hoofprints of a horse, and there are signs that someone has been fixing things. Fortunately, this mysterious person doesn’t seem to mind her being at the cottage. Her mysterious friend leaves little presents and notes for her. More and more, Mandy fears that her secrets will be discovered, but when she becomes ill and needs help at the cottage, she becomes grateful for the help of a friend who knows where she is. Having a place to call your own is good, but having friends and a family who care make a place a real home.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

Update: A site reader pointed out that I should have explained that Julie Andrews Edwards is the same Julie Andrews who played Maria Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Mary Poppins in the Disney musical, and the queen in The Princess Diaries movies. When I was younger, I didn’t realize that she also wrote children’s books. She is also known for writing The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, which I haven’t covered yet. Julie Andrews’s early life was difficult because her parents divorced and each married other people during WWII. At various times, Julie Andrews lived with each of her parents and stepparents and traveled around as she began performing with her family as a child. Her family was poor, and she later described her stepfather as being a violent alcoholic. Her chaotic early life may have been a factor in this story about a lonely girl looking for a place to belong and a real sense of family.

My Reaction and Spoilers

This is a sweet story about having a place to call home and a real family. Mandy craves for these things, even before she truly understands what it means to experience them. Parts of the story are sad and sentimental, but others are just enchanting. This book fits well with the Cottagecore aesthetic. The cottage in the orchard is charming, and Mandy’s care for it reminds me of other children’s books, like Dandelion Cottage, where children have their own secret places to fix up and care for.

Mandy gets wrapped up in her special secret place, tending the garden and watching the animals there, but it gets her into trouble with her friend and roommate, Sue, and with the matron of the orphanage because of the secrets she’s keeping and the way she keeps helping herself to things she really shouldn’t take and slipping away to spend time at the cottage without telling anyone where she’s going. Mandy loves the cottage because she can imagine it as her own home, a place that belongs to her and where she belongs, but Mandy needs people, too. Sue’s friendship for her helps her when she gets into trouble, the matron turns out to be more understanding than Mandy feared, and Mandy’s adventures with her cottage bring her into contact with people who become the family Mandy really needs. Once Mandy has the family she needs, she no longer feels compelled to keep the cottage all to herself, and she decides to share it with the other girls at the orphanage. Mandy’s new home with her new family is every bit as charming and magical as her cottage. It’s a big, old house with secret passages that she explores with her new brother.

However, I think that it’s important to note that not everything in the story is easy and happy for Mandy. All through the story, she struggles with her emotions, experiencing sadness and loneliness and trying to understand what they mean. Her new family doesn’t fully accept her immediately, either. They are never mean or rejecting of her. They are friendly and helpful people from the first time they meet Mandy, but it takes some time of them getting to know her before they decide that they want her to be a permanent part of their family. There isn’t a lot of high drama, and her new brother is never jealous of her or mean to her. However, the family does take some time to make their decision after Mandy spends Christmas with them, and that adds to Mandy’s inner distress.

There are points in the story when Mandy’s fate seems uncertain, and she considers running away from the orphanage. The headmistress becomes concerned about Mandy because of her melancholy and tells the family considering her that Mandy has begun asking her questions again about her parents and how they died, something that she hasn’t done for years, showing that she has become preoccupied with the concept of family life and her lack of it. The family is concerned for Mandy and understanding of her feelings, but I thought that having the family take time to get to know Mandy and to consider what having her join their family would mean was realistic. I think the drama was softened a little to keep the gentle feel of the story, but there’s enough emotion and inner turmoil that it doesn’t feel like Mandy’s problems resolve too easily.

Sue and Mandy bring up the question about whether Mandy’s discovery of the cottage and her new family was a matter of luck. Sue is envious because it seems like everything happens to Mandy. Mandy asks her new father if that’s a matter of luck, but he says that Mandy is special and that things happen to her because she is brave and goes looking for them. She is a quiet person, but she takes her life into her own hands and pursues what she wants, where other people might be too timid to do it. Technically, Mandy broke rules and took some risks to care for her secret cottage, but she did it because it was important to her, and it worked out in the end. Her new father seems to appreciate Mandy’s spirit and determination.

Posted on by TracyC

The Witch’s Spoon

The Witch’s Spoon by Mary Cunningham, illustrated by Marilyn Miller, 1975.

Tom and Lauren are spending a week with their grandmother at her beach cottage during the summer. They have visited the cottage many times before, and they love revisiting all their favorite places, the bunk beds on the cottage’s sleeping porch, like the tree where they always see baby owls (which they call the owl tree), and the place where they once found some lost coins (which they call the money spot). They know the cottage well, inside and out. This summer, though, there are a few things that are different.

The first thing that the kids notice that is different is that their Grandma has added a new item to her curio cabinet: a big silver spoon with a long handle. They ask their grandmother about the spoon, and she explains that it’s a witch’s spoon. She recently inherited it from the children’s Great-Aunt Hannah (that would be their grandmother’s sister), who used to live in Massachusetts. The spoon is a family heirloom from the time of the witchcraft trials in Salem (“when witches were thought to be as much of a problem to people as air pollution is now” – this is from the mid-1970s). Their grandmother says that there are good witches and bad witches, and good witches would use spoons like this one to stir love potions. Tom doesn’t believe in witches, but Lauren is fascinated by the spoon and the idea of love potions. She is sure that she senses magic from the spoon.

The next thing that will make the children’s visit here different from previous years is that their grandmother has decided that they’re old enough to have a June Day. June Days are a family tradition, and it’s not just because it’s June. During a June Day, the usual household rules are suspended for one day, and the children are allowed to go wherever they want and do anything they want, all on their own. Grandma says that she will prepare meals at the usual times, but for that day, it’s up to the children whether or not they show up for them, so they don’t need to interrupt their adventures. If the children aren’t there to eat their meals, Grandma will share the food with their nextdoor neighbor, Mr. Bunby. There are only a few safety rules that the children have to follow: they are expected to by careful when attempting any activity that might have an element of danger, and they have to leave their grandmother a note about the general area where they are going, like the beach or the nearby woods, so if they’re not back by dark, she’ll know where to look for them. The June Day ends when it gets dark, and the children must be home by then.

The grandmother understands that there is a certain element of risk in letting the children go off by themselves, and she reminds them that “every box has its pill.” That means that, while their children can choose what they’re going to do, they have to face the consequences of their choices, no matter what they might be, good or bad. “If you open the box and find a bitter pill, you have to swallow it.” Getting to make their own rules and decisions for a day doesn’t get them out of taking the consequences of whatever they do. If they get hurt or get into serious trouble, not only will they suffer the hurt or trouble they cause, but their parents may not let them come back next summer, so they need to keep that in mind when making their choices. Freedom still comes with responsibility, and that’s what the children need to be old enough to understand before they can have a June Day. Tom says that they understand, and that they won’t do anything too wild. Their grandmother tells them that they can have their June Day in two days, so they will have time to look forward to the treat and plan for it.

Tom and Lauren have different interests, so each of them decides to make up their own plans for a private adventure. Tom already knows what he wants to do for his June Day. There is a cave near the beach where the children usually aren’t allowed to go, but there are rumors that there is a giant cavern inside where pirates have hidden their treasure. Getting inside the cave will be difficult and involves an element of risk, but he is determined to spend his June Day hunting for pirate treasure. He doesn’t want to persuade Lauren to join him because he thinks she’ll be too scared to do it.

Meanwhile, Lauren thinks how she’s always wanted to hold a baby owl in her hands. She loves animals, and she decides that she’ll try to hold a baby owl on her June Day. She decides she won’t tell Tom about it, because he would probably think that was a silly thing to do. Lauren thinks that she even might try to make a baby owl a pet, just for the rest of the week.

There is one other thing that is different about this year, though. Their grandmother informs them that their cousin, Elizabeth, will be joining them at the cottage this year. Elizabeth’s father is the brother of Tom and Lauren’s father. Years ago, he moved to Italy and married a woman there, and they had only one daughter, Elizabeth. Unfortunately, Elizabeth’s parents died in a car accident, and Elizabeth has been living with her three aunts in Rome. She has never been the United States before and has never met either her grandmother or cousins, so the children’s grandmother has decided to invite her to visit this year.

Tom and Lauren aren’t thrilled at the idea of meeting their Italian cousin. It’s partly jealousy at sharing their grandmother with a girl they don’t really know. Elizabeth was named after their grandmother, and Lauren worries that Grandma will like her better because of that. Tom complains that she’ll probably be fat and smell like garlic because people in Italy eat a lot of spaghetti. It’s a mean thing to say, and even Lauren thinks it sounds ridiculous, but the children’s negative attitudes are also because they realize that Elizabeth’s presence will complicate their secret plans for their June Day. In order to have their secret adventures by themselves, they will also have to avoid their cousin trying to tag along.

In spite of their negativity and thoughts about playing pranks on Elizabeth so she won’t want to stay, Lauren realizes that she is also curious about this cousin and seeing what she’s like. When Elizabeth arrives the next day, she is a slim girl with dark hair, who doesn’t smell like garlic at all. Elizabeth speaks fluent English as well as Italian because she goes to an international school in Rome, so the children are able to talk to each other easily. Lauren feels jealous about the attention that their grandmother showers on Elizabeth, but Elizabeth is nice to Lauren. Elizabeth likes to knit, and she says that she would like to make a sweater for Lauren. Lauren asks her if she’ll have enough time because she’s only visiting for a week, and Elizabeth says that if it’s not finished by the time she has to leave, she will mail it to her. Lauren begins to feel a little sorry that she thought bad things about Elizabeth, but she also still feels jealous because of all the things Elizabeth knows how to do. Elizabeth can play the flute and wears pretty clothes as well as knitting and speaking multiple languages. Then, their grandmother announces that Elizabeth will be allowed to choose one item from her curio cabinet to take back to Italy with her. Tom and Lauren aren’t even allowed to open the curio cabinet without permission!

Their grandmother tells Tom and Lauren that they will each have a chance to choose something from the cabinet when they’re older. The only reason why Elizabeth is choosing now is that she lives far away and can’t come very often. Tom and Lauren each have favorite items in it that they tell Elizabeth to definitely not take before they get a chance to choose, and Lauren suggests that Elizabeth take the witch’s spoon. The witch’s spoon hasn’t been in the cabinet long enough for Tom or Lauren to have developed an attachment to it. Elizabeth is intrigued by the story that witches used it for making love potions, and their grandmother says that, in times of trouble, you can look into the bowl of the spoon and see answers. Elizabeth says that it’s an Italian tradition that a good witch gives children presents on January 6th (see The Legend of Old Benfana). She tries to see her deceased father in the spoon and is disappointed when she can’t. Their grandmother says that it might not be magical anymore or maybe people only saw in the spoon what they wanted to see.

Tom and Lauren continue making their secret plans for their June Day, each kind of wondering what the other is planning to do. When the day arrives, they each get up early and put their plans into action before anybody can ask them what they’re going to do. Of course, their plans don’t turn out the way they thought. Lauren’s attempt to hold a baby owl and maybe make one a pet don’t take into account how the mother owl would feel about that. In the cave, Tom accidentally falls and drops his flashlight, so he’s trapped and unable to find his way out. Neither one of them was specific enough in their notes for anybody to find them quickly when they get into trouble. Fortunately, Elizabeth turns out to be not only a tag-along but a helpful partner in their adventures. Through their various adventures and disasters on this special June Day, the three children come to feel like they really are cousins. At the end of the story, the grandmother makes a special tea blend, and Elizabeth stirs it with the witch’s spoon, turning it into a love potion, but for family love.

I bought my copy of this book through Amazon. I haven’t found a way to read it online.

My Reaction and Spoilers

The book doesn’t say exactly where the story takes place, but I think it’s supposed to be the California coast because that’s where the author lived. The descriptions of the pine forest near the cottage and beach fit the California coast, and the same author wrote another book called The Rescue that takes place at a cabin in California.

The story has some nice cottagecore vibes, with the children having fun and adventures in nature. There are times that they reminisce about past summers at the cottage as well as enjoying the current summer. They once kept a lost, wild baby ferret as a pet temporarily one summer before releasing it back into the woods, and they always have to look for baby owls in the owl tree when they arrive at the cottage. They spend time at the beach, swimming, wading, sunning themselves, and looking for seashells. Lauren has a favorite type of seashell, called angel’s toenails. When Tom explores the cave, he likes seeing the stalactites, and he sees bats and a type of blind fish in the stream of the cave.

Few children these days have the same level of freedom that these children have at their grandmother’s seaside cottage, although for somewhat obvious reasons. Their grandmother speaks to them honestly and sincerely about the nature of risk-taking and accepting the consequences of their actions, but adults will realize that there are obvious problems with each of their plans for June Day. Even as a kid, I would not have tried to pick up a baby owl or keep one as a pet. Wild animals do not want to be made into pets, and they don’t want their babies to be picked up and held by humans. Owls are cute, but they are also birds prey with sharp beaks and talons and will fight back if they feel like someone is intruding on their personal space. Even my child self would have thought of that long before Lauren tries her June Day experiment. Of course, that’s mostly because my elders impressed on me that nobody should mess with wild animals. The reason why we know that certain things are bad ideas is that people actually tried them and found out from personal experience. Maybe some people have to try things themselves before they understand or believe why they’re bad ideas. I have to admit that I once tried to pick up a dead cactus pad when I was about four years old because I had the idea that dead things couldn’t hurt me, so I figured out that it wouldn’t hurt to touch dead cactus. That’s the Arizona version of this type of experimenting with interacting with the natural world, and I was very, very wrong. One benefit of this kind of hands-on experimenting is that the lessons you learn stay with you forever, but as the grandmother of this story says, you have to accept the results of your experiments, whether it’s a clawed head or a handful of cactus spines.

Tom is the one who takes the greatest risk in this story. When he first considers using the June Day to explore the cave, he knows that they’re not usually allowed to go there. The question that immediately came to my mind was why, and the obvious answer is that the adults know that the cave is too dangerous. Tom considers the difficulties of getting into the cave but not the dangers he can encounter inside. Just because the rules have been suspended for the day doesn’t mean that the dangers have also been suspended for the day, which was what their grandmother was trying to get the children to understand. It’s not unlike learning that cactus spines are just as sharp when the cactus is dead as when it was alive. Fortunately, Lauren and Elizabeth manage to rescue Tom without anyone getting hurt.

The adventures that Tom and Lauren end up sharing with Elizabeth help them bond as cousins. They also learn that, while Lauren has some unique skills and lives a very different kind of life in Rome that is exciting in its own way, she isn’t perfect and neither is her life. Elizabeth is an orphan who still misses her parents. The skills that she has are ones that she’s learned from her aunts, who each have their own standards for what Elizabeth should learn and do. Elizabeth’s aunts love her and care for her, but she isn’t always allowed to do what she wants. This summer represents an unusual amount of freedom for her, too.

I think Tom and Lauren might have taken Elizabeth’s sudden arrival better if their grandmother had prepared them for it instead of springing it on them without warning or discussion of how it would affect their summer plans. The grandmother might have also prevented some hard feelings by talking to all of the children about the gift for Elizabeth from the curio cabinet. I understand why Tom and Lauren wanted to prevent Elizabeth from suddenly taking things that they were attached to. If she had, it would have caused some hard feelings among the cousin. If I were the grandmother in this situation, I think I would have sat all three children down and told them that I wanted to give each of them a special gift from the cabinet. Tom and Lauren would have to leave their gifts in the cabinet for the present, partly because the heirloom Tom values most is a pearl-handled gun, and I think he’s too young to have that unsupervised. However, it would be understood that each of the children would own a special heirloom, and they could discuss their choices among themselves so there wouldn’t be hard feelings or the impression that one child was given more choice than the others.

There aren’t really occult themes in the story. The witch’s spoon only does one thing that appears like magic at one point, and there is a logical explanation for that. The love potion tea really just caps off the children’s day of adventure, when they bond over helping each other. The children know that the spoon probably really isn’t magic. The real magic in their imaginations and the time they spend together as family.

Posted on by TracyC

The Railway Children

Railway Children Cover

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, 1906.

Railway Children toy train explodes

Three children in England live a comfortable and happy life with their parents. Roberta is the eldest, followed by Peter and Phyllis, the youngest. Their family has servants, their mother enjoys helping the children with their lessons and making up stories for them, and their father is clever at fixing broken toys. When Peter turns 10 years old, he is given an electric toy train (a relatively recent innovation for their time and the type of toy only a wealthy family could afford), which is a wonderful present because Peter wants to become a mechanical engineer. However, something goes wrong with the toy train, and it explodes at his birthday party! When Peter’s father comes home, he looks at the toy train and says that he thinks he can fix it, but before he can say much more, some strange men come to the house and want to talk to him. They spend a long time talking while the children’s mother takes the children upstairs. Then, their mother goes downstairs to see their father. When she returns, she seems very upset, but she doesn’t want to discuss it with the children. She only says that their father has been called away and that the children should go to bed.

The next day, their mother is gone for a long time, and the children are worried about what is happening with their parents. Their mother finally returns in the evening, tired and still upset. She tells the children that the men who came the night before brought very bad news and that their father will be away for some time, so she is going to need them to help her. She says that there will be times when she will have to be away for long periods and that she wants them to behave themselves and not fight while she’s gone. She doesn’t want to tell the children what the problem is or for them to ask her or anyone else any questions about it. She only says it’s about their father’s business and none of them really understand their father’s business. They know that their father works in a government office, so his business has something to do with the government, but their mother doesn’t want to say more than that.

Over the next several weeks, their mother is gone for long periods, leaving the children with the servants and with an older aunt who will soon be taking up a position as a governess for another family overseas. The children don’t get along with their strict aunt. The servants are usually more pleasant, but the children have the uncomfortable feeling that the servants know more about their father’s situation than they do. One day, in spite of his promise to behave himself for their mother’s sake, Peter plays a prank on the parlor maid, and the parlor maid angrily tells him that if he doesn’t fix his behavior he’ll go where his father has gone. The children don’t know what she’s talking about, and when they ask their mother, she dismisses the parlor maid. She wasn’t going to keep the parlor maid much longer anyway because she tells the children that they’re going to move to the country.

When they move, they can’t take everything from their house with them because the house in the country is smaller, and their mother says that they have to take the most useful things, leaving many of their prettier things behind. She tells the children that they’re going to have to “play at being Poor.” Readers will understand that they’re not just playing, but the children’s mother tries to frame their move as a great adventure rather than the misfortune it really is. For the children, it is a kind of adventure.

They take a train to the countryside, but when they arrive, they have to walk from the trains station to their new little house because there are no cabs there. A man brings their luggage in a cart. When they arrive at the house, which is called Three Chimneys, it is night, and the woman the mother hired to clean up the house and make supper for them is gone. The man with the cart says that she probably left because their train was late and that she probably left the house key for them under the door step, as people in the countryside tend to do. The key is there, but they discover that the woman hasn’t really done any cleaning for them, and she didn’t make supper. Fortunately, they do have some provisions, packed by the strict but thoughtful aunt, so they are able to put together a small meal for themselves.

Railway Children falling asleep outside

In the morning, Roberta wakes Phyllis and points out that they have no servants in this new house, so they had better get up and make themselves useful. They get things together as best they can for breakfast, although they don’t really know what they’re doing or where everything is. They start the kettle going too soon, burn the kettle, and let the fire go out. The children explore the house’s yard and garden. They can see the train tracks and a tunnel down the hill from the house, and they fall asleep outside because they got up too early. When their mother wakes up, she gets everything ready, fixing their clumsy efforts, and finds a note from Mrs. Viney, the cleaning woman. In her note, Mrs. Viney apologizes for not having everything ready for them the night before because there was a family emergency. She had to leave early because her son-in-law broke his arm, but she promises to be there later that morning to help them.

Life in the country is very different from life in their old home. Their mother now tells them that they are really poor. It’s summer, and the children are not going to school, and their mother spends most of her time writing because she wants to sell stories for money. The children still don’t know where their father is, and it still worries them, but they gradually get used to their new life and to not asking questions about their father. Deep down, Roberta knows that something terrible has happened and that their mother is very upset about it, but because her mother seems like she would be even more upset if the children knew the full truth or just how upset she is, Roberta makes a deliberate decision not to notice anything that her mother doesn’t want her to notice. Whenever it seems like her mother has been upset or crying or whenever there’s been any hint about her father, Roberta deliberately looks away and pretends that she didn’t see anything. She tries to keep cheerful and enjoy this “adventure” that they’re living.

The children develop a fascination for the trains that run by their house, and they go to have another look at the train station. They are not accustomed to being at train stations just to observe them, only to either catch trains or arrive on trains. They are fascinated to notice the details of the station and the train signals. They notice a white mark where the coal is stored, and Peter asks the porter what the mark is for. The porter tells him it’s to mark the level of the coal so they can tell if someone has taken some, giving them a friendly warning not to steal any.

The children’s new poverty doesn’t mean much to them at first because they still have plenty to eat, but when there’s a wet and chilly morning and Peter wants to light a fire, their mother tells him that they can’t afford to light fires in June and that they must save their coal for when it’s really cold. There are other little economies that the family must make. The mother tells the children that they can have either butter or jam on bread, but not both at the same time. If they eat too much at once, they’ll run out before they can afford more.

Railway Children station master

These small things that they can no longer afford give Peter an idea. He decides to stage a daring raid on the coal at the train station for the sake of their family. Although he knows that it isn’t really right, he doesn’t think of it as stealing but more like coal mining because he digs through the coal pile for the pieces underneath, which he figures they won’t miss. However, the station master catches him and insists that he and his sisters come into the train station and explain themselves. Peter explains how his family used to be able to afford fires on wet and cold days, but now they can’t because they’re poor. The station master becomes a little more sympathetic, but he gives the children a lecture about taking things that don’t belong to them. It’s still stealing, even if they think of it by another name. He lets the children keep what they’ve taken so far and lets them go with a warning not to do it again. Peter is horribly embarrassed by the incident, and he is uneasy for a while whenever he sees the station master, but the station master eventually lets him know that he is forgiven and gives them permission to visit the train station again.

The children enjoy visiting the train station and asking the friendly porter questions about the trains and how they work. The porter, whose name is Perks, likes chatting with them and answering their questions. The children watch the trains so much that they begin to recognize that each train is distinctive in its appearance. The trains no longer look all the same to them, and they start giving them nicknames, like the Green Dragon, because it’s pulled by a green engine. When Peter notices that individual trains have numbers written on them, Perks introduces him to the hobby of train-spotting, where people write down the numbers of trains that they’ve seen in a little notebook. (He doesn’t call it by that name, but that’s what he describes.)

The children become especially fond of the train they call the Green Dragon. Every day, they wave to this train, imagining that it’s a magical dragon that will carry their love to their father, wherever he is. Every day, a pleasant-looking older man who rides that train sees them and waves back to them. They begin to think of the man as a friend, waving to him and imagining that he’s also going somewhere to work on “business”, possibly with their father.

Railway Children Phyllis with note

Their new train friend turns out to be very important. When their mother becomes ill with a serious case of influenza, the doctor gives them a list of things they should get for her, most of which they just can’t afford. The children are willing to make do with a diet of bread and water to get her some of the things she needs, but even doing that won’t get her everything she should have. Then, the children come up with a desperate plan. They use a sheet to make a sign to tell the old man on the Green Dragon to look out at the station. When the train comes through the next time, everyone on that side of the train sees the sign, and they all look out at the station, confused because they don’t see anything unusual. It’s just Phyllis at the station, and she slips a note to the old man, explaining their situation and asking if he could get the things they need for their sick mother. The children promise that their father will pay him back or, if he’s lost all his money (as the children are starting to suppose is the case), Peter will pay him back when he’s a man. The nice older man is amused and touched by the message, and he sends them a package with all the things they asked for, plus a few more that he thought of himself. In the note accompanying the package, he says that they should tell their mother only that a friend who heard she was ill sent these things, although they should tell her the full story when she’s feeling well enough to hear it. The old man says that he knows their mother probably won’t be happy that they asked a stranger for help, especially not without asking her first, but he says that he thinks the children did the right thing.

The old man is right about their mother’s feelings. When their mother is well and realizes what the children did, she is angry, and she starts to cry. She says that, while they’re poor, they’re not destitute, and they shouldn’t go around asking strangers for things. Part of that is personal pride and shame at their family’s reduced circumstances. She still can’t bring herself to talk about what really happened to the children’s father and why they’re so poor now. However, they do come to rely on help from strangers and new friends, and they learn that people will help others if they’re asked. Even when they’re not rich themselves and could use some extra money, some people, like the local doctor, still let them them have services at reduced rates and take some pride in their ability to help someone who needs it and who appreciates the help.

Railway Children train engineers

When Roberta decides to get help to fix Peter’s broken toy train, she accidentally hitches a ride on a train engine because she thinks that the train engineers know how to fix trains. The book explains that there are different types of engineers, from people who build engines to people who drive train engines and people who build things like bridges. Not all engineers do the same things, and the people who drive the engines don’t repair them. Fortunately, one of the train engineers has a relative who can fix things. Touched at the young girl’s request for help fixing her brother’s toy, he arranges for his relative to fix it.

The family also comes to experience what it’s like to help someone else who’s less fortunate when a man gets off at their train station, obviously ill and speaking a language that nobody understands or even recognizes. The only language the children have studied in school is French, so they decide to ask him if he speaks any French, even though they can tell that’s not the language he’s speaking. It turns out that the man does also speak French. Their mother speaks better French than the children do, and when she speaks to the man, she recognizes who he is. He is an author from Russia. He wrote a book about the plight of poor people and how to help them, which the mother has read and really appreciates. However, this book put him on the wrong side of the ruling class in Russia, and he spent time in jail as a political prisoner. He was later exiled to Siberia and put in a forced labor camp. The mother is surprisingly frank about the conditions in the camp and the forced marches where prisoners were whipped and left to die if they couldn’t go on. Since this man was able to get away, he has come to England in search of his wife and child. He heard that they had fled to England after his arrest, but he doesn’t know exactly where they are in England. At the train station, he was trying to explain that he was ill and that he lost his train ticket. The family lets him stay with them for a time while he recovers his health.

Railway Children flags

The children become heroes to the railroad when they witness a landslide that blocks the tracks and use the girls’ red flannel petticoats to make warning flags to stop the train. The children averted a terrible accident, and they are publicly thanked and given gold watches as a reward. The old gentleman from the Green Dragon is there, and the children learn that he is a railway director. They write him another note, asking if they can talk to him about an unfortunate prisoner.

The old gentleman meets with the children at their train station the next time his train comes through, and the children tell him about the Russian author, who is still looking for his missing family. The children say that the gold watches are a wonderful reward, but they’re willing to sell them or trade them back to the old gentleman in exchange for help locating the author’s wife and children. The old gentleman recognizes the author’s name and says that he has also read his book. The old gentleman knows some people in the Russian community in London, and since the author is a famous man, people in the Russian community are likely to know where his wife is currently living. He’s happy that the children’s mother is helping the author, and he says he will be glad to make some inquiries on his behalf. The old gentleman also asks the children for more information about themselves. He soon follows through on his promise to help the author, bringing the man’s wife and child to him.

Much of the book is about giving and the ways people help each other. When the children arrange a birthday surprise for Perks, he gets angry at first because he thinks they’re giving him charity. He changes his mind when the children tell him how they collected the birthday presents from various people in the community because they wanted to show him how much they all appreciate him and help that he’s given them in the past. His wife says that he’s been ungrateful for rejecting the presents, but Perks says that it’s not just about being given things but how and why they’re being given. If people gave him things because they thought that he couldn’t afford them or couldn’t work for them, it would have been an insult because he works very hard. If they’re given out of friendship and returned favors, it’s different.

Railway Children Bobbie learns the secret

In the background of the story, there is always the question of what happened to the children’s father and why they had to leave their old home. At one point, their mother worries about why the children have stopped talking about their father and is afraid that the children are forgetting about him. Roberta admits that they talk about him when their mother can’t hear them because she can tell that their mother is sad whenever they mention him around her. Their mother admits that’s true, and she still doesn’t want to tell them the full reason why, only that something bad did happen, and it will be a while before their father can be with them again. The reason for the father’s disappearance adds an element of mystery to the story, although most of the book focuses on the children’s adventures in the countryside. There are clues along the way, from the men who came to get their father to the clothes that Roberta discovers that her mother is keeping for him. There is her mother’s reluctance to be sociable with other people and the way she talks when she describes how awful it is to be in prison, away from your family, and the reasons why a person might be arrested, which aren’t quite the same in England as the reason why the Russian author went to prison. These are the things that Roberta tries to ignore … until she finds something that starkly tells her what all of the adults already know. When Roberta understands the real problem, she can only think of one person who might be able to help: the kind old gentleman who helped them before.

The book is now public domain, so it is available to read online through Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive (multiple copies). There is also a LibriVox Audiobook on YouTube. It’s been made into a movie multiple times, and you can see the 2000 version online through Amazon Prime. It fits well with the cottagecore aesthetic! There is also a sequel movie, not based on an E. Nesbit book, which takes place during WWII, when the children in this story are adults and other children are evacuated to the countryside from London.

My Reaction and Spoilers

The Children’s Father

There are clues all the way through the story to what happened to the children’s father. He was framed for being a spy and a traitor in relation to his work with the government, although he didn’t do was he was accused of doing. People thought he was a traitor because there were letters found in his office that incriminated him, placed there by some unknown person, and these letters convinced the jury at his trial that he was guilty. The trial was conducted during those weeks when the children were at their old home with their aunt and were being told not to ask any questions. They left for the country after he was sentenced to prison. Their mother turns to writing, something that she already enjoyed, to earn money to support herself and the children, and she doesn’t want to see much of anyone because she doesn’t want to face their questions about her husband.

Railway Children the old gentleman

Roberta learns the truth about her father when Perks gives her some old papers with pictures in them to amuse Peter after he is injured by a rake the children were fighting over. The newspaper that is wrapped around the bundle has an article about her father. Roberta reads the article and then asks her mother for the full story. Roberta understands why her mother didn’t want to tell the children what happened because she also can’t bring herself to tell Peter and Phyllis what she now knows, but Roberta still wants to understand the situation herself, now that she knows about it. Her mother tells her that her father suspects that the real traitor and the person who framed him is the man who took his job when he went to prison, but he can’t prove it, and nobody believes him. Although her mother has told her not to ask people for things, the situation is dire, and Roberta can’t let her father stay in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, so she asks the kind old gentleman if he can make some inquiries into the situation on behalf of her father. She just can’t keep the matter to herself, and he’s the only person she knows who seems to have some authority and connections and might be able to do something. The old gentleman is happy to help, especially after the children help his grandson when he is injured.

In the end, the real villain is discovered, and the father is released from prison, but the readers and the children don’t see exactly how that happens because the old gentleman seems to take care of it in London, away from the children and their mother. The book ends with the father arriving at Three Chimneys, so the family is happily reunited, but we also don’t see what their lives are going to be like after that point. They no longer have their old home, and I find it difficult to believe that the father would want to return to his old job, like nothing had happened. If all of your co-workers believed that you were some kind of traitorous spy and seemed to like the guy who framed you, returning to that office would be far too awkward. It’s a life-altering event that might have potentially been life-destroying, not just a small misunderstanding. In the end, it seems like the family will be okay. The family has a wealthy supporter now, so the old gentleman might be able to help the father find a new job. The family has also come to enjoy living in the country and has some friends there, and the mother indicates that she wants to continue her writing, so they might not move somewhere else, at least not right away. It will take the family some time to sort out what they’re going to do, rebuild their family finances, and move on from this incident. We just don’t get to see all of that happening as readers. The book ends on the happy note that things are being set right, and the family is reunited.

The Meaning of Charity and Helping Others

I’d like to point out that there is a theme of rich people coming to the rescue of deserving poor people in many books from the 19th century and early 20th century, like in this book and The Five Little Peppers. People in these stories take pride in being self-sufficient and doing their best on their own, but in the end, it’s the recognition of their worthiness from someone with money and authority who is willing to supply support them that really makes a difference in their lives and saves the day. I’ve thought sometimes that the rich-person-to-the-rescue theme seems to contradict the do-it-all-yourself attitudes that the characters in these stories often have, but I think the key to understanding it is in what Perks says about his birthday surprises – it matters how and why gifts are given.

The same gift or act of kindness can take on different meanings, depending on the motives and attitudes of the giver. Perks would have been insulted if people gave him charity because, to him, it would be like people telling him that he was incompetent at getting things for himself and his family, which isn’t true. However, the same gifts take on different meanings when they’re meant as a salute to his friendship and helpfulness to others because he can tell himself that he did things to earn them. The children in this story earn the help they get from the kind old gentleman (who is never named in the story) and others in the community through their acts of kindness and heroism to the community, so they are demonstrating their usefulness and competence instead of asking for things they haven’t earned and don’t deserve. They can take pride in their competence and good deeds, so they’re not mere “charity” cases, who take without giving. At least, I think these are the implications of stories like this. I get the concept about personal pride, but I don’t feel the same way about it because I think there are more important priorities.

Railway Children Perks' birthday

Personally, I don’t have negative associations with the concept of “charity”, either giving or receiving. I’m more like Perks’s wife, who’s just grateful that somebody cares and that people think of them and are willing to give. I appreciate when things are getting accomplished, people are being helped, and objects are being put to good use by people who will actually use them. In situations like that, I’m more oriented toward the results than concerned about image. (My personal image has always been that of an oddball eccentric anyway. A basically pleasant and helpful oddball, but still an oddball. I like to maintain a certain level of eccentricity because I’ve discovered that there’s a kind of freedom in that. It’s like choosing to be a character actor instead of a teen heartthrob. Nobody can be a teen heartthrob forever, but being a character lasts a lifetime, and the ways you can do it are almost endless.) I have no objection to people giving me things I need or helping me accomplish things I want to do, and I’ve done the same for other people. It’s just life to me, and I think it’s best to focus on the good being accomplished and get on with doing things. (By the way, if you enjoy my nostalgic children’s book blog, please consider buying me a coffee to support the site! Proceeds will help support my book addiction, site maintenance, and future reviews and would be greatly appreciated.)

I’ve worked for nonprofits before, and people who work for nonprofits are there to do good and get the job done. They see needs in their communities, and they want to step in and supply them. There are people who make their lives and careers around making positive change. I certainly wouldn’t want people trying to stop those who are trying to do something good for others just because they have a negative attitude and no plan or effort for accomplishing positive change themselves. Of course, when you have a nonprofit or work for one, people come to you for things they need or to support your cause. They come to you because they’re in the mindset for making positive changes to their own lives or in the community, and that can also play into the concept of how giving is done. If someone just isn’t in the mindset of accepting help or gifts or making positive changes, there isn’t much to be done about it until they are in the mindset to do something.

Railway Children the Russian author

I think this book actually does a good job of presenting that concept. The mother’s and Perks’s sense of pride and attitude toward the concept of charity contrast with the old gentleman, who seems willing to just go ahead and get the job accomplished when he sees what people need or what they’re trying to do. Both Perks and the mother seem to feel a blow to their pride when someone helps them or gives them something, yet both of them are happy to offer help to others who need it. Being the one offering something rather than receiving it seems to make them feel like they’re in a position of strength and competence. The mother takes in both the ill Russian author and the old gentleman’s injured grandson, not seeing those as insulting acts of charity. It’s when she’s both poor and ill herself and doesn’t feel strong or competent that receiving help from someone seems to remind her that she’s vulnerable. I think that’s the feeling that gives her a negative attitude toward charity – perhaps not that she’s fine without help but the thought that she’s in a position to need some help is scary. While she’s sick and has a high fever, Roberta tends to her through the night, and she hears her mother calling out for her own mother. It’s a moment of revelation to Roberta that, no matter how old a person gets, they still have moments of vulnerability, when they need someone else to comfort and help them, like a mother would. It can be a bit humbling to go through those vulnerable moments and have someone see you being vulnerable, but it’s human. The revelation that mothers are also humans who sometimes need other adults doesn’t make Roberta love or respect her mother any less. In fact, it makes her appreciate her mother more for what she goes through for her family and makes her more determined to be helpful and supportive to her mother.

Railway Children Perks

I think Perks experiences a similar a similar attitude to the children’s mother. There are hints that he’s had a rough life himself and has worked hard for the level of stability he has now. When the children try to give Perks money for carrying the old gentleman’s gift to their mother to the house, he gruffly refuses it because he doesn’t want to take money for helping their sick mother. His refusal of their money for his service could be seen as an act of charity to them, but it’s framed more that he’s doing a personal favor or like Perks thinks that the children are offering him a kind of charity by trying to pay him for a service he is willing to provide for free. He also helps other people in the community, and helping others makes him feel strong and competent. Receiving something from others makes him feel like there’s something wrong with him or his life or like other people think there is. Perhaps it reminds him of hard times in his youth. It really seems like it’s only the attitudes of the giver and the receiver that determines what forms of giving are acceptable, and it’s bit subjective. The old gentleman understands that when he writes the note to the children that he sends with his gift to their mother, but he also says that he thinks they did the right thing. Maybe there are some kinds of giving or asking for help that are objectively good or right for reasons other than people’s opinions.

This is a good time to point out that the author of this story, E. (Edith) Nesbit, believed in socialism, although she wasn’t a radical on the subject. I think that’s why she examines the subject of helping others and receiving help from the point of view of people from different classes in society in this story. All of the adults in the story take some pride in their positions in society and in maintaining the appearances associated with those position. Victorian society was very class-based, but the family’s poor circumstances take them out of their usual class and changes the situation for them and others. The children and their mother sometimes really do need the help of other people, whether they like it or not, but they still have the capacity to help others in different ways. One of the themes in the story seems to be that everyone needs something from other people at some times. There are times when what they need might be help and support from others, and there are times when it might be a chance to show that they have the capacity to help others or appreciation for help they’ve already given.

This story raises many questions about giving which don’t have firm answers and can be viewed from different perspectives. Are all of the various forms of giving and receiving only different forms of charity, or are they just the interactions of human beings who all care about each other? Are people’s intentions or the image of giving really what’s important, or is it the giving itself? It may be better to give than to receive, but without someone willing to receive, what is the point of the act of giving?

For another early 20th century book that considers the differences between different classes of people and the meaning and benefits of charity, I recommend Daddy-Long-Legs, which is about an orphan whose college education is funded by a mysterious benefactor. That book is set in upstate New York, and it falls under the Light Academia aesthetic.

Fun Stuff

I always like seeing old books and historical books with scenes where people are playing games because I made a website about Historical Games. In this book, the children play a game that resembles Dumb Crambo (which was a precursor to modern Charades) called the Advertisement Game. In the Advertisement Game, the children act out characters they’ve seen in advertisements for each other to guess. There is also a scene with some boys from a nearby boarding school having a Paper Chase, which is a cross-country outdoor game. One player is the Hare, and he leaves a trail of bits of paper for other players to follow as the Hounds.

Posted on by TracyC · 7 Comments

Dandelion Cottage

Dandelion Cottage by Carroll Watson Rankin, 1904.

The small cottage used to be a church rectory, but it when Dr. Tucker was hired as the new minister, his family with eight children was too large to fit in the old cottage. By that point, the old cottage was in disrepair anyway, so the people of the church decided it was time to build a new, bigger rectory. Some people consider the small, old rectory to be an eyesore, but Bettie, the only daughter of Dr. Tucker, is fascinated by it. It’s true that the old house is run-down and that some of the windows are broken, but to Bettie, it looks almost like a little playhouse.

One day, Bettie suggests to her friends Jean, Marjory, and Mabel that it would be great if they could have the old cottage, now known as Dandelion Cottage for all of dandelions growing around it, as their own special place to play. All of the girls have noticed that, when the four of them play together, they tend to get on the adults’ nerves, making too much noise or seeming to be underfoot. Marjory is an orphan who lives with a strict aunt, and Bettie has seven older brothers. There just never seems to be enough room for the girls anywhere or adults willing to put up with them for very long. Marjory thinks that the chances of them being able to use Dandelion Cottage for themselves are slim, but she suggests that maybe they could arrange to rent the cottage somehow. None of the girls has very much money, so they aren’t sure how they can rent the place.

Mr. Black, the church warden, sees the girls looking at the cottage and asks them what they’re doing. They explain that they want to rent the cottage so they’ll have somewhere to play. They tell him how Marjory’s aunt won’t let her make paper dolls because cutting paper in the house makes a mess, and Bettie says that her brothers like to play Indians and pretend to “tomahawk” her dolls. (The books in this series sometimes get criticism for racial stereotypes and language, and this is one example. I do understand the part about brothers and dolls, though. My older brother once held one of my dolls for ransom when we were kids.) Not having any money to rent the cottage, the girls offer to clean it up in exchange for being allowed to use it. Mr. Black knows that some of the neighbors have been complaining about how the place has been overgrown with weeds. The church could hire someone to take care of the weed problem, but that would cost money, and they don’t have a lot to spare. Mr. Black tells the girls if they’re willing to pull all the weeds, he’ll let them play in the cottage all summer. The girls aren’t enthusiastic about pulling weeds, but they’re very enthusiastic about having their own playhouse, so they agree to do it. Mr. Black says that he’ll turn over the cottage key to them after they’ve pulled the weeds.

While the girls are pulling weeds, some of them play pretend games, like they’re fighting soldiers or Indians (as in Native Americans, another one of the objectionable points), and finally, they get the job done. Mr. Black is satisfied with the job they’ve done and pleased with their willingness to sow grass seeds and flowers where the weeds once were, so he gives them the key to the cottage for the summer.

The girls are thrilled at having a whole house to themselves all summer, although it needs serious cleaning before they can really use it. Mr. Black, a lonely widower with a fondness for children, (especially Bettie, who reminds him of his own daughter, who died young) stops by to see how the girls are doing. When he finds them exhausted from cleaning and trying to decide if they can manage to clean the floor before they give up for the day, he gives them some peanuts to eat and finishes the cleaning himself. He tells the grateful girls that they can thank him by inviting him to dinner at the cottage some day.

The girls’ parents completely support them playing in the playhouse because it does mean less noise and mess at home, although they refuse to allow the girls to stay in the cottage overnight for safety reasons. They let the girls have some old furniture to furnish the house, including chairs that are missing legs, beds that sometimes have the slats falling out of the bottom, and six clocks, four of which don’t work. The little cottage soon begins to look cheerful and lived-in, although the girls have to warn their visitors about which chairs are unsafe to sit in.

The girls worry at first that they won’t be able to afford to buy food to give Mr. Black dinner as they promised. They know that they could ask their parents for supplies, and even nice Mr. Black would probably provide something for them to cook if he knew that they couldn’t afford anything, but they feel like they really should find a way to buy the supplies for dinner by themselves. They try holding a lemonade stand, which works for a little while, but then, they misplace the money they earned.

Fortunately, their money problems are soon solved when they receive a request for a room to rent from a nice young lady. She is the daughter of the traveling organ tuner who is working on the organs at some local churches. She has arranged to take her meals at the boarding house where her father is staying, but she was unable to get a room there herself, so she is looking for somewhere inexpensive to stay nearby. She will only need the room for three weeks. The girls explain their arrangement regarding the cottage to her, and they show her their best bedroom. Miss Blossom, their new boarder, says that it will suit her just fine. Because the furniture is old and the house is still not in very good repair, they only charge her half rate to stay there, but that’s still more money than the girls have ever earned before! When Dr. Tucker learns who their lodger is, he approves of the arrangement, and Mrs. Tucker and the other parents give the girls some proper bedding and a few other supplies for their boarder. Miss Blossom turns out to be a nice boarder, who sometimes joins the girls in their games, delighting at her stay in their playhouse.

Then, an older woman who lives nearby moves away, and a new family moves into the house next door to the cottage. The Milligans aren’t a very good family. Mr. Milligan swears (the girls’ mother tells them not to listen and to keep the windows of the cottage closed while he’s chopping wood because of the things he says), and Mr. and Mrs. Milligan argue frequently. Laura, the daughter of the family, is the same age as the other girls, and she plays with them for a time, but the other girls stop playing with her because she’s mean to them. She teases them meanly, tries to boss them around, and eventually, steals from them. The stealing ends their friendship. Laura lies to her mother about what happened, blaming the other girls for slapping her and her baby brother and throwing them bodily out of the cottage. Mrs. Milligan comes to the cottage to lecture the girls about their behavior and refuses to believe them when they tell her the truth about Laura. To get revenge on the girls, Laura kills a plant in the girls’ cottage garden. The girls hadn’t purposely planted the plant, and they had been looking forward to seeing what it was as it grew.

Laura continues to do horrible things to the girls, breaking a window of the cottage, throwing dirt through the window, messing up their porch, spreading molasses on their door, and sending her dog through their flower beds. One day, Laura starts a fight with the girls by yelling mean and insulting poems at them. Laura throws tomatoes at the girls, and Mabel throws apples back at Laura. Mabel isn’t normally good at throwing anything (something that Laura taunted her about), and she accidentally hits Mr. Milligan. Mr. Milligan, for once, sees his daughter misbehaving and is angry at her for throwing the tomatoes and wasting food, but he also threatens to have the other girls thrown out of the cottage for their misbehavior. Mrs. Milligan lies to their landlord, Mr. Downing, telling them that the girls have been playing with matches in the cottage. Mr. Downing manages the books for the church, so he evicts the girls from the cottage while Mr. Black is out of town.

The girls go to see Mr. Downing and argue that they’ve already paid their rent in full for the summer with their labor, but Mr. Downing says that their agreement with Mr. Black didn’t make good business sense and it’s “not binding”, so he’s breaking it. He wants to rent the cottage to a paying tenant, and Mr. Milligan himself has offered to rent it while someone else rents the house the Milligans are currently in.

The girls are heartbroken, but they have no choice but to move out. Although, the Milligans’ scheme backfires on both the Milligans and Mr. Downing. Mr. Downing wouldn’t believe the girls when they said that the cottage wasn’t in good enough condition to be anything more than their playhouse, and they were telling the truth. The cottage looked nice when the girls had their things there, but when they take them back and the girls’ brothers strip the house of some repairs that they had made for the girls’ sake, its real condition shows. The Milligans are stuck with a cottage that leaks in the rain, and they can’t move back into their own house because the new tenants have already moved in and don’t want to leave. The Milligans are forced to move out of the neighborhood entirely, so the girls never have to see Laura again. Mr. Downing, angry at the hassle the Milligans gave him over the whole issue, even blaming him for their furniture being ruined by the leaking roof, yells at the girls when they ask if they can move back into the cottage, which is now empty. However, when Mr. Black returns to town, he gives the girls the second key to the cottage, tells them that they can move back in, and has a talk with Mr. Downing about his treatment of the girls and their agreement about the cottage. The girls’ grateful families fix up the cottage even better than it was before, and Mr. Downing gives the girls an embarrassed apology and a peace offering, admitting that they are far better tenants than the Milligans.

The girls have made friends with a lonely older woman who lives near the cottage, Mrs. Crane. Mrs. Crane is a widow who has very little money, and she offers the girls friendship and sympathy during the time when they were evicted from the cottage. The girls feel sorry for her, having no children or other family to look after her. They try to help look after her themselves, and they become increasingly concerned about her when her boarder moves out. She relies on keeping a boarder for income, and she doesn’t know what she will do when he leaves. The girls wish that they were old enough to take her in themselves. One of the best things they do for her is to invite her to the dinner that they finally give for Mr. Black to thank him for all his help. The girls don’t know that Mrs. Crane and Mr. Black have a history with each other, but their parents realize that the two of them having dinner together is something that would be good for both of them.

The book is now public domain, so it is available to read online through Project Gutenberg and Internet Archive (multiple copies). There is also a LibriVox Audiobook on YouTube.

My Reaction

My copy of this book was a present from my grandmother, who told me that she had read it and liked it when she was young. My grandmother was born in November 1918, so the book was already about 20 years old or more by the time she could read it. She grew up on a farm in Indiana, so she was accustomed to small town life in the Midwest, much like the girls in this story. It was very different from my own childhood in a city in the Southwest, but I thought the story was charming, and I wished that my friends and I could have a house all to ourselves!

The books in this series receive some criticism for racial terms. I haven’t read all the books yet, but the issues I’ve spotted in this particular book relate to stereotypes about Native Americans when the children in the stories are playing pretend. The issues I’ve seen so far seem pretty tame compared to some parts in the Little House on the Prairie series, so anyone who is okay with Little House on the Prairie would probably be okay with these books, but since I haven’t read all the books yet, I can’t be completely sure how the rest of the books are. I recommend that adults read through the books first before giving them to children and be prepared to talk about things with child readers. As long as child readers understand that they shouldn’t imitate everything that they read in old books, I think they will be fine. There are also instances of bullying and fat-shaming in the mean things that Laura says to the girls, which kids should know not to imitate, either.

Apart from that issue, this book is a pretty calm, charming story. The book fits with the Cottagecore aesthetic that has been popular in the early 2020s. Modern kids and adults may still enjoy the girls’ sense of independence in their own cottage and how they fix it up and give it new life.

The cottage in the stories is based on a real cottage in Michigan, in the author’s hometown, Marquette. My copy of the book has an About The Author section on the back, with a picture of the author. The girls in the story and their adventures are fictional, but the town did once have a dandelion problem that may have been the inspiration for this story.