Stories of Rainbow and Lucky

Up the River by Jacob Abbott, 1860.

This is the fifth and final book in the Stories of Rainbow and Lucky series. I’ve already covering the rest of the books this series, and I have to do all five books in a row because the series is set up like a mini-series. That is, none of the books in the series can stand alone; they are all installments of one, longer story. They only make sense together.

It’s an unusual series from the mid-19th century, written on the eve of the American Civil War, by a white author with a young black hero. Rainbow is a teenage black boy who, in the previous installments of the story, is hired by a young carpenter, Handie, who is just a few years older than he is, to help him with a job in another town, working on renovating a farm house that Handie has inherited. The rest of the series follows the two young men, particularly Rainbow, through their adventures leaving their small town for the first time, learning life lessons, getting new jobs, and even dealing with difficult topics like racism. Lucky is a horse who used to belong to a neighbor of Handie’s new farm. Rainbow befriended him, and in the previous book in the series, he managed to buy Lucky on credit. Because he now owns a horse, he is able to take a new job, delivering mail. This final story in the series follows Rainbow as he begins his new job.

The story is unusual for this time period because it was uncommon for black people to be the heroes of books and for topics like racism to be discussed directly. I wouldn’t say that racism is the main focus of the series. It’s mainly a slice of life and coming of age story for Rainbow as he and Handie both set out in life and begin building careers for themselves, and it’s meant to be educational for young readers. However, racism and racist comments are sprinkled throughout the story, with the author calling attention to the fact that these are not good ways to behave or polite ways of speaking, for the benefit of its original audience of 19th century children. It’s also important to point out that our black hero is not a slave, he is not enslaved at any point in the series, and the series has a happy ending for him. People don’t always treat him right, but he does have friends and allies, and he manages to deal with the adversity he faces and builds a future for himself. 

This particular installment in the series focuses on Rainbow’s new job. It has its hardships and adventures, but it sets up a bright future for Rainbow. Keep in mind along the way that there are a lot of pun names in this series and that people’s names are often clues to their characters.

This book is easily available to read online in your browser through NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICAN CHILDREN & WHAT THEY READ, I’m going to do a detailed summary below. If you’d rather read it yourself before you read my review, you can go ahead, but some people might want to know what it’s like in more detail.

The Story

This story picks up where the previous book in the series left off, with Rainbow back in his home town with his horse, Lucky. He has just accepted the job of delivering mail. The first characters we see are Thomas and Jerry, two teenage boys working in the stable that belongs to the local tavern. Jerry is younger than Thomas and has only just started working there. He is disgruntled because Thomas won’t let him handle some tasks without supervising him closely. Thomas says that he needs to see how Jerry works before he will trust him to work unsupervised. Jerry thinks that Thomas is implying that he’s incapable of doing the work, which is insulting. Thomas says that his own job depends on his ability to make sure that everything is done correctly in the stables, and as a new employee, Jerry is his responsibility, so Thomas needs to make sure that he knows what he’s doing and does a good job.

Rainbow is boarding Lucky at the stable, and the boys talk about the horse and about Rainbow’s new job. Thomas is a little envious of Rainbow for getting the job of delivering mail, but he couldn’t apply for it himself because he doesn’t have a horse of his own, like Rainbow does. Jerry asks how Rainbow was able to afford a horse, and Thomas explains that he bought it on credit. Making a major purchase on credit involves finding someone who is willing to supply the loan, and Thomas is also a little envious that Rainbow managed to do that because he can’t think of anyone who would trust him enough to loan him that amount of money. Jerry says that he’s surprised that a black boy got the job because the black boys he’s known are so “saucy” (meaning flippant or impudent). However, Thomas says that Rainbow isn’t like that and that he’s smart and a good worker. In spite of the fact that Thomas wishes he was in Rainbow’s position, he admits that Rainbow got to this position because he’s a good worker, and employers trust him because he has demonstrated that he is scrupulous in fulfilling his duties to them. That’s how Rainbow finds people willing to hire him and loan him money.

Rainbow comes to the stable to give Lucky a brushing and take him out for a run. He tells Lucky that he’s been able to have fun up to this point, but soon, they will have to seriously begin their work of carrying the mail. They will have to follow a 24-mile route up the river, traveling in all kinds of weather with a heavy mail sack, and there will be a fine to pay if they don’t stick to the route and arrive on time. However, the work will pay off, and Rainbow says that he will see to it that Lucky has a nice, warm stable and good food. Lucky, being a horse, is unconcerned and is mainly interested in neighing at another horse he sees nearby.

When Rainbow and Lucky return to the stable, Jerry tells Rainbow that Trigget is waiting in the tavern to talk to him. Rainbow goes to see Trigget, and Trigget says that he is there to draw up the contract for Rainbow’s new job. They discuss the job requirements and the pay, and Trigget offers Rainbow advice about how fast his horse can travel and how he can make his mail run on time. Because Lucky is still a young horse, Trigget cautions Rainbow not to run him too hard and risk injury. Traveling the full length of his route at a good pace will take about 8 or 9 hours, so Rainbow should plan accordingly. During periods when the weather is bad and traveling will be slower, Rainbow will have to leave earlier in the morning to make sure that he finishes the route at the proper time.

Trigget also tells him that, even though he’s sure that Rainbow will do his best to be on time with his deliveries, there will be times when he will be late despite his best efforts. Sometimes, the weather will be bad, and there’s always the risk of accidents. Because there are government fines for being late with the mail, Rainbow’s pay includes the option to accept extra money that he can use to pay up to four fines per year, if Rainbow chooses to pay his fines himself rather than having the company pay on his behalf. It’s a bit of a gamble to accept this option because, if Rainbow is late more than four times during the year, he will have to cover the additional late fines himself and will lose money. However, if Rainbow is late less than three times during the year, he can keep whatever is left over from that extra money. Rainbow decides to accept this option because he is confident that he won’t be late very often. With the terms settled, Rainbow signs his contract with Trigget and begins his job.

Rainbow Begins the Route

Rainbow and Lucky set off on their route on the morning of November 1. The book explains that the post office in their town is in a small building next to the tavern, and Rainbow enters from the tavern, using a special key kept on a hook. The postmaster prepared mail bag the night before, so it is ready to go. Rainbow just needs to pick it up.

Rainbow and Lucky ride about 5 miles before they reach the first post office on their route. The postmaster there takes the mail bag from Rainbow, removes the mail meant for his office, and returns the bag to Rainbow. Everything goes according to routine at the first stop, and Rainbow and Lucky continue on their way.

Rainbow begins to consider his new schedule as they travel. They will be traveling for most of the week with a stop at post office No. 5 for a couple of days. The stop at No. 5 would be a good time for Lucky to rest, but Rainbow wonders what he’s going to do there for a couple of days himself. He considers whether he could find any side jobs to do there, like carpenter work or hauling wood.

As they continue on their way, Rainbow talks to Lucky about the countryside, the river, and the bridges, noting how high the water under them can get. About every four or five miles, they stop at another post office. As they keep going up river, the post offices become more primitive. One of them is just in a log cabin with a sign written in chalk to designate it as the post office.

At a place called Mix’s Corner, a man named Mix has a farm and a saw mill. His house also serves as the post office and tavern for the few travelers who come that way. Mrs. Mix handles the mail and gives Rainbow some food while her young son, Ephraim, puts Lucky in the barn, where Rainbow can give him some oats. Rainbow offers to make a whistle for Ephraim, but then, he remembers that it’s better to make whistles in the spring, when the barn is easier to separate from a willow or poplar stem. (There is a detailed explanation here about how that works because the new layer of wood formed in the spring, the alburnum, is softer then. After it has matured, it becomes harder, and it’s more difficult to remove. The author/narrator says that Rainbow doesn’t fully understand the scientific principles behind this process, but he knows from hands-on experience that these wooden stems are easier to work with in the spring. “So much for the philosophy of whistle-making.”) Ephraim is disappointed, so Rainbow offers to make him a windmill toy instead and to bring him a whistle from the store the next time he passes. Stores sell whistles for a penny each, so it wouldn’t be too expensive for Rainbow to buy one for the boy. Ephraim accepts the offer, so Rainbow makes him a windmill out of a wooden shingle (we called this toy a pinwheel when I was a kid, and we made them out of paper), and Ephraim runs around in the yard outside with it to make it spin.

As Rainbow continues on his way, he makes it a point to get to know the people along his route and to make friends with them. At the next house he passes, a woman named Mrs. Captain Myers greets him. The narrator says that she even gives him a “courtesy” (what we would call a curtsy). Normally, she probably wouldn’t make such a formal, deferential gesture for an ordinary black boy, but she knows that he’s the new mail-carrier, and this is an important position in this area as mail is the main form of communication. She values the position Rainbow holds, so he gets special consideration.

She asks Rainbow if he is carrying any letters for her, but he says that he doesn’t know. There is a lock on the mail bag he carries, and he can’t open it because only the postmasters at the post offices along his route have copies of the key. This is how they keep the mail secure. Since he can’t open the bag himself, there’s no way that Rainbow can check for letters for specific people. Mrs. Captain Myers lives a couple of miles from the nearest post office, and she says that it’s often difficult for her to get there to pick up her letters. Rainbow says that, if she likes, he can pick up her mail for her and bring it to her on his return trip, and she say that would be very helpful.

As he rides on, Rainbow confides to Lucky that his desire to make friends and help people he meets along the way isn’t entirely out of kindness for its own sake but also cunning. Rainbow knows that this route will become more difficult to travel during the winter, and there will probably be some times when he will need help from people who live in the area. If he has made friends with them and done them a few good deeds, they will probably be more likely to help him later, when he needs a good deed himself. The narrator/author weighs in at this point with some thoughts about how Rainbow needn’t think this form of “cunning” isn’t also kindness:

Rainbow was very much mistaken in supposing that his disposition to be obliging to the people who lived along the road was to be attributed to cunning and not to kindness. If we really entertain feelings of good-will o those around us, and desire to promote their happiness by every means in our power, and take pleasure in doing it, then we are truly and sincerely kind. The fact that we are aware that, by so doing, we make other people ready to show kindness to us in return, and that we are even influenced in what we do by a desire to secure such requitals, is nothing in any sense derogatory. “Cast thy bread upon the waters: thou shalt find it after many days,” is an injunction of the Scriptures, and it implies that it is right for us to be influenced in our efforts to do good by the hope and expectation of receiving at some day or other a beneficial return.

(I can see the point, that a kind act isn’t diminished by the other person’s gratitude or willingness to return the favor. The author might have also considered that there are also less kind ways for people to try to get people’s cooperation than building up goodwill in advance. Some people might simply expect deferential treatment as their due without showing care or consideration to the other people involved, or worse, they might use the threat of bad behavior to make other people do things for them. Rainbow is taking a better path by showing others that he does care about them and is willing to help them when he can, even if they haven’t done anything for him yet.)

Post Office No. 5

The final stop on Rainbow’s route is post office No. 5, which is in Squire Holden’s house. (The book sometimes calls Mr. Holden by the title “squire,” which can have several meanings. Besides the British gentry title, it can refer to the primary land owner in a village, which may be the meaning here, or to someone who holds a legal position, like the lawyer in the first book in the series, who was also called “Squire.” The legal title is still in use sometimes as a courtesy title for lawyers in the form of “esquire“, after a lawyer’s name, frequently abbreviated as Esq.) The village is very small, with only a blacksmith shop, a mill, and a general store. Squire Holden’s house is only one story with an addition built on that doesn’t look completely finished. Since Rainbow has had some carpentry training from Handie (in the earlier books in the series), he thinks that he might be able to get some work helping the Holden family finish it. Squire Holden isn’t at home when Rainbow arrives, but his wife greets him and tells him where to put the mail bag.

According to the arrangement of his route, Rainbow will be staying with the Holdens for a couple of days before beginning the journey back. Trigget discussed with the Holdens before Rainbow began his job, telling them that the new mail carrier would be a black boy. As mentioned in the first book in the series, some people in this time and area might object to having a black person stay with them, so Trigget wanted to make sure that Rainbow would be welcome with them and would have a place to stay. The Holdens have no objection to hosting Rainbow, with Mrs. Holden saying, “that she never cared at all what color a cow was so long as she gave plenty of good milk.” (Meaning that she isn’t concerned about Rainbow’s race as much as his behavior, and Trigget has given him a good character reference, so it’s all fine with her.) The narrator says that Trigget thought that would probably be the case with the Holdens, but he thought that they would appreciate him discussing the situation with them first anyway, since Rainbow would be staying in their home as a guest. The Holdens’ small daughter, Toolie, is very shy of Rainbow when he first arrives, but she warms up to him gradually during his stay. Rainbow helps to win her over by making a little doll for her.

Mr. Holden is out in the woods, cutting down some trees. Rainbow offers to go and help him, if there is an extra axe, but Mrs. Holden says that the only other axe they have is an old, dull one. Rainbow goes to the village store to see if he can buy an axe, but the store is closed. The nearby blacksmith tells him that the store doesn’t sell axes anyway. All they have is axe handles. Rainbow watches the blacksmith making horse-shoe nails for a while, and the narrator describes the process. The blacksmith comments about the horse Rainbow rode there and asks who owns it. Rainbow says that’s a difficult question to answer because he has bought the horse but hasn’t yet paid for him. Since Rainbow doesn’t explain further about buying the horse by obtaining a loan for the purchase and that it’s the loan that he hasn’t repaid, the blacksmith is surprised and doesn’t really believe him.

Rainbow spots an old axe in the blacksmith shop and studies it. He knows more about evaluating the condition of tools than the blacksmith thinks because of his time working with Handie. Rainbow realizes that the axe is old and has been worn down and resharpened many time before. To put it in good repair again, the axe head would have to be removed from the hand and reshaped through a process they call “setting” (which the author describes as one of his detailed explanations of 19th century life). Rainbow negotiates with the blacksmith to purchase the axe and have it set. (The blacksmith quotes him the price of a “shilling.” It surprised me that he called it a shilling because that’s usually a British monetary description, and this is the mid-19th century, well after the Revolutionary War. I didn’t realize that expression was used in the United States that late. The amount of money in the “shilling” the blacksmith expects is also different from the British shilling. The British shilling would be worth 12 pence or pennies or 1/20 of a pound, but the book explains that the blacksmith wants 26 cents.) The blacksmith asks when Rainbow can pay for it because he said that he didn’t pay for the horse he bought, and the blacksmith doesn’t think he really has any money. To his surprise, Rainbow produces the money and pays right away, which makes the blacksmith hold him in higher regard. The blacksmith says that he can have the axe ready for him that evening.

When Rainbow returns to the Holdens’ house, he uses their old axe to split some wood in the yard. When Mr. Holden returns home for supper, he says that Rainbow can help him to clear a piece of land. He offers Rainbow two shillings a day for his help, which Rainbow considers a good wage. Rainbow tells him about the axe he is buying from the blacksmith, which he can use for clearing some bushes while Mr. Holden cuts down trees. However, Rainbow says that he would also like to explore the neighborhood the next day because he has never been in this area before.

After supper, Rainbow returns to the blacksmith, whose name is Mr. Whackhammer. He helps by operating the bellows while the blacksmith works on the axe. Mr. Whackhammer comments that Rainbow seems to have some understanding of tools, and Rainbow explains a little about his work with Handie over the summer. The blacksmith thinks that he’s bright to have picked up some knowledge of tools in such a short time. After the blacksmith finishes setting the head, Rainbow buys a new handle for it and fits the head to the handle. (The author also describes the process for that.)

Rainbow spends the rest of evening talking and telling stories with the Holdens by the fire. When it’s time to go to bed, Mr. and Mrs. Holden talk to each other a little about Rainbow. Mr. Holden says that Rainbow seems like a smart boy, and Mrs. Holden says that he is also pleasant company, noting that, “I’m more and more confirmed in my opinion, that it is of no consequence what the color of a cow is, provided she is not cross, and gives plenty of good milk.”

The next morning, Rainbow goes out to the woods with Mr. Holden and helps him clear the underbrush on the land he is trying to clear. When he does a good job with that, Mr. Holden says that he can try his hand at cutting down trees, which is trickier. A person cutting down a tree needs to cut it in a particular way so that it will fall in the direction he wants it to fall. The narrator explains how this works, and Rainbow follows Mr. Holden’s example. They make good progress before they go home for dinner. (“Dinner” is frequently what they call lunch in the countryside, and that is the case here. They go home for lunch.)

After dinner, Rainbow says that he would like to take a walk and explore the area that afternoon. The Holdens tell him a little about the people who live nearby, including a man named Mr. Dyker, who is building a house. Rainbow says that he might go see him and offer his help. This, unfortunately, leads us to the second use of the n-word in this series. As Rainbow approaches the house, he hears Mr. Dyker say to the man who is with him, “Who is this (n-word) coming, Dan?” When Rainbow hears that, he almost turns around and leaves, wishing that he hadn’t bothered to come. What stops him is that Dan replies, “Don’t call him a (n-word), Joe, till you find out whether he deserves it.” Rainbow decides that he might take a chance on these men since at least one of the two seems willing to give him a chance. (Personally, I might not be so charitable. Rainbow considers Dan a “fair man” for his comment about reserving judgement to see “whether he deserves it”, but to my way of thinking, calling that comment “fair” would imply that there might be people who do deserve that kind of slur, and I’m not convinced. Granted, it’s not as bad as immediately calling a total stranger something bad for no reason, but it’s still not great.) Rainbow still feels indignant about the insult, but he decides to follow his mother’s advice about “overcoming evil with good.”

Rainbow explains that he heard they would be raising a house frame this afternoon, so he came to see if he could help. Mr. Dyker says that perhaps he can. Mr. Dyker doesn’t think too much of Rainbow’s abilities at first, and he also hesitates to let him do too much because he thinks Rainbow might expect payment. He asks Rainbow what kind of wages he expects, but Rainbow says that he doesn’t need any money. He’s just looking for things to do because he is the new mail carrier and will be staying here for a short time before following the route back down the river. Hearing that Rainbow is the new mail carrier catches Mr. Dyker’s attention. Rainbow explains what he can do to help them, and Mr. Dyker and Dan realize that Rainbow has some carpentry experience. Dan suggests that they let Rainbow show them what he can do. When they see that Rainbow knows what he’s doing, they’re happy to let him work with them. As they work, they chat pleasantly with each other, and they begin feeling better about each other.

When Mrs. Dyker begins to lay out supper, Rainbow gets ready to leave, thinking that they might not way to eat with a black person, considering the way Mr. Dyker talked before, but they insist that they would like him to stay and have supper with them, so he does. While they’re getting the supper ready, Rainbow even picks some flowers for Mrs. Dyker, as “the lady of the new house.” The author/narrator says that this gesture pleases Mrs. Dyker, even coming from a black boy (which seems a little back-handed to me). The author/narrator also says that Mr. Dyker adds a prayer of blessing for Rainbow to their prayer before the meal. He says, “Mr. Dyker was perfectly honest and sincere in these invocations, for he was really a good man, although he had been so heartless, or rather so thoughtless, as to call Rainbow at first by an opprobrious name.”

Mr. Dyker compliments Rainbow on his carpentry skills, and Rainbow thanks him, but he says that he doesn’t plan on becoming a real carpenter. Mr. Dyker asks him why, and Rainbow says that he has trouble with the mathematical skills that professional carpenters need to plan what they build. Handie tried to teach him a little geometry, but he found it difficult to understand. The author/narrator praises Rainbow for this honest and accurate assessment of his own skills and limits. Rainbow knows his tools and can carry out some basic carpentry tasks and assist others, but he knows that he can’t plan out the full construction of a building or more complicated projects by himself. Still, Mr. Dyker thinks enough of Rainbow’s skills that he says anytime he has free time, he will pay him to help further with his building project. Rainbow says that he will be free on Friday, and he can work for Mr. Dyker that day, but he can’t make promises beyond that point. He’s still getting a feel for his new job as mail carrier, and he can’t say what other jobs might come up for him on the side.

Returning UP and Down River

On Rainbow’s way back down the river from his first trip, he remembers to pick up Mrs. Myers’s letters for her, as he promised before. He also remember to buy a penny whistle for young Ephraim to take with him when he begins his next route up the river. He knows it’s important to keep his promises while building relationships with the people he meets.

As Rainbow continues making trips up and down the river, he starts to become better friends with little Toolie. In particular, Toolie likes the way he answers the questions she asks. The narrator explains that Rainbow is very good at answering the questions of young children because he knows a little more than they do, but not a lot more. Rainbow is still young himself, in his teenage years, and he is just starting to get out in the world and experience more of life, but he isn’t that much more experienced than a kid yet, which the author says is the ideal mindset for explaining things to kids. Often, adults with a lot of knowledge and experience will try to tell kids too much or make their explanations too detailed when talking to young kids, confusing them. Rainbow is one step ahead of them in his knowledge, and one step further is the most a young kid can take at once.

At this point, the author delivers a reprimand to adults who assume that, just because they cannot give a young child a complete, detailed answer to their questions that the child should not have asked the question in the first place. He says that asking questions and trying to understand the world is part of the natural business of childhood and is important for helping the child to prepare for later life, so a child should never be criticized or shut down for doing that. He says that it is unreasonable for an adult to try to stop children from asking questions or reprimand them for their growing young minds simply because the adult finds it difficult to handle and formulate answers. (I have some thoughts about this, but I’ll save them for my reactions section.)

One day, little Toolie asks Rainbow questions about his appearance, trying to figure out why he looks different from everyone else she knows. (Her questions sound awkward and would be insulting, if they didn’t come from a little child who is just struggling to understand something that she has noticed.) She starts by asking him why his face is black. Rainbow simply says that he’s always been like that. Toolie thinks about it a little and then asks if the black would wash off if he washes his face. Rainbow explains that it won’t because his color is something inside himself that just grows there, and it’s not something on the outside of his skin that would wash off. (Rainbow might not know the word melanin, but this basic description is accurate. The scientific explanation is that all humans have melanin in their bodies, but we have it to different degrees. People with a lot of melanin have darker skin, hair, and eyes, and people with less have lighter features. This is an example of how Rainbow, with little formal education, can’t supply some of the more complex, scientific explanations, but he can deliver simple explanations that are accurate and easy enough for a young child to understand.) Toolie further asks Rainbow about his curly hair, and Rainbow says his hair curls like that naturally, although some people use curling tongs to curl their hair. Toolie understands this because her mother also has curling tongs.

Satisfied with this basic explanation, Toolie tells Rainbow about the schoolhouse up the road. Toolie sometimes goes to school there, when her father has the time to take her there, and she asks Rainbow if he will take her there sometimes. Rainbow says that he could take her on Lucky when he carries the mail, making a pun on male/female: “Then Lucky would have a mail and a female on his back.” Toolie is confused because she doesn’t understand the terms male and female yet. Rainbow asks her what she learns at school, and Toolie says she is learning to count, but she can only count up to nine so far. Rainbow jokes about his own ability to count, saying that he counts, “One couple three several, many more enough, plenty, and ever so many.” Toolie doesn’t believe him that this is the right way to count, and they move on to talking about why the sun is so bright and warm before it’s time for dinner.

Toolie’s parents arrange with Rainbow for him to take her to school one day before he leaves with the mail. Rainbow takes Lucky for a brief run before picking up the mail and Toolie because Lucky is very energetic, and he doesn’t want Lucky to act up and scare little Toolie while she’s riding with him. Toolie is very nervous when she gets up on Lucky, and Rainbow tells her that’s fine and normal:

“Yes,” said Rainbow, “every body’s afraid the first time they ride upon a horse. I expected that you would be afraid. But that’s no matter. It does not hurt any body to be afraid, so don’t you mind it.”

(I like that advice better than “All we have to fear is fear itself.” Learning not to be afraid of your own fear sounds like a more positive move.)

The other children and their teacher are surprised to see Rainbow arrive at the school, carrying Toolie on horseback. He introduces himself and explains that he’s the one who carries the mail. Some of them say that they would love it if Rainbow would bring them letters, and Rainbow laughs before he rides off again.

There is a brief interlude at this point that explains that Toolie is one of the youngest children at the school and describes what the youngest children do. It’s a small, one-room schoolhouse, so the teacher divides her attention between the different levels of students. Mostly, the youngest children just practice reciting their letters for the teacher at various points throughout the day, and the rest of the time, they are allowed to play outside, as long as they stay within sight of the school and come inside when the teacher rings the bell.

As Rainbow continues to travel his route, he meets more people and becomes better acquainted with the terrain and how it changes with the weather and changing season. There is one point when he has to ask a strange for directions for an alternate route because he realizes that the water in a stream he crosses is rising too high and that his usual road may become impassable. Later, he befriends some children he meets while watering his house and makes toy boats for them. He calls the children he meets along his route “my children” because he has a soft spot for young children and likes looking after them and making them little toys.

There are times when the route is harsh due to bad weather, which Rainbow knew would happen before he began the job. He still has to get the mail through as best he can, no matter the weather. There is one time when he has to walk the mail across and then his horse across a flooded crossing. The only time when he misses one of his stops is when he gets lost in a snow storm because the roads are covered in snow, and he fails to reach No. 5. When Rainbow realizes that they’re lost, he and Lucky have to camp out in the woods. Rainbow makes them a couple of huts for shelter, and they are able to find their way in the morning.

Finding Lucky

Rainbow’s most serious problem comes when Lucky is stolen from Trigget’s stable one night by a couple of thieves. At first, Trigget assumes that Lucky simply got out of the stable himself somehow and is lost, so he loans Rainbow another horse that he can ride to make the mail run. Rainbow is very upset, but he has no choice but to start on his route with the borrowed horse. At every stop on his route, he asks if anyone has seen Lucky, but nobody has.

Meanwhile, the thieves are hiding in a house in the countryside, planning to wait until Rainbow has stopped looking for his horse. Eventually, they plan to take the horse to Boston to sell him. To make Lucky less recognizable, they paint white markings on him. However, Lucky doesn’t like the rough shed where the thieves are keeping him. He gnaws throught he rope securing him. Unable to get out of the shed, he lies down behind some barrels, so when the thieves come to feed him the next day, they don’t see him. When they find him behind the barrels, they lead him out of the shed and have a look at his rope. Seeing that he chewed through his rope, they decide that they need to put a sturdier harness on him. While they’re trying to harness him, Lucky breaks free and runs away.

Lucky wanders around and hides in the woods. Getting hungry, he looks for food and eats some hay from a traveler’s sled. He runs away from most of the people he sees. He really wants to find Rainbow, and Lucky recognizes that Rainbow is black, so he runs away from any white person he sees. When he finally sees a black man coming along the road, he follows him, thinking at first the it might be Rainbow. It isn’t, but Lucky continues to follow him anyway because he reminds him of Rainbow.

The black man, whose name is Augustus, lives in a log cabin. Lucky explores around the cabin and finds a supply of hay, so he starts eating it and then goes to sleep. The next morning, Augustus comes to get some hay for his cows and finds Lucky eating it. Augustus calls to his teenage daughter, Rosalinda, to come and see the horse. He asks Rosalinda if she knows who owns this horse, but Rosalinda says that she doesn’t recognize him and doesn’t think he belongs to anybody nearby.

Augustus puts Lucky in his shed and gives him more hay to eat while he decides what to do. Since they don’t know who really owns him, Augustus decides that they should make some advertisements about the horse they found. Rosalinda knows how to read and write, so Augustus tells her what to write on the advertisements, having her make four copies. Augustus’s plan is to take their advertisements to Mix’s Corner and give them to the mail carrier to post in the tavern. Of course, Rainbow is the mail carrier.

When Augustus meets Rainbow and tells him about the horse he found, Rainbow recognizes Lucky from his description, except for the white markings the thieves painted on him. Rainbow goes with Augustus to have a look at the horse, and he realizes that the white markings are only paint. He knows that someone must have taken Lucky and painted him deliberately, although he still doesn’t know the full story behind Lucky’s disappearance. He is grateful to Augustus for finding Lucky and taking care of him, and he takes Lucky home and cleans him up.

Winter to Spring

Rainbow runs into trouble as winter begins turning into spring. The snow is still high, but it is just starting to melt, which makes it too soft and too deep for Lucky to walk on. People who live along Rainbow’s route help by trying to clear the roads where they can, so Rainbow can get through, but there are still times and places where Lucky has trouble sinking into the snow.

One day in early April, it rains, and this makes the going even more difficult. Rainbow and Lucky make it to Mix’s Corner, but the people tell him there that he shouldn’t try going further because the conditions are bad. Rainbow feels obligated to try to get the mail through anyway, so he decides that he will walk the rest of the way while leading Lucky. However, when he comes to a bridge, a stranger who lives nearby warns him not to try to cross because the bridge is unsafe. Rainbow could try to cross the stream on the ice, but with the thawing, the ice isn’t safe, either. Since there is a saw mill nearby, Rainbow decides that he can get some boards that can help him cross the ice by himself with the mail bag, but he will have to leave Lucky behind.

Rainbow arranges for the stranger to board Lucky in his barn and to help him lay the boards over the ice so he can cross. (The book explains that laying boards over thin ice can reinforce it so it can support the weight of a person when it otherwise wouldn’t. The idea is that the board will distribute the person’s weight more over the surface of the ice. It states this as a fact that young readers may already know, probably from living in areas where people do this. I’ve never lived in a place where it snows, so I’ve never had a reason to try to cross ice, but I understand the principle of weight distribution.) Rainbow says that he could also use a hand-sled to carry the mail further. The stranger doesn’t have one, but Rainbow asks to borrow his tools and makes one for himself. The man watches while Rainbow crosses the ice, and fortunately, Rainbow reaches the other side safely. Rainbow is able to successfully get the mail through, barely on time, which causes Trigget to lose a bet he made with Jerry because he didn’t think Rainbow would succeed in that weather.

Conclusion

This is the end of the five-book series, and the final chapter explains how our characters are doing and what is likely in store for them in the future. We are told that, “Rainbow went on very prosperously after this in all his affairs.” There are difficulties and dangers in his job, but he is successful because he is prudent and plans ahead for the difficulties he may encounter. The people along his route also help him when he needs it because he’s been so kind to them and their children. Before the end of the year, he is able to repay the loan he used to buy Lucky, so Lucky now belongs to him outright.

Because the loan worked so well for buying Lucky, some people suggest to him that he could buy some farmland in the same way. Handie recommends that he wait until he’s a little older before he does that, and if he wants to buy some land, it would be better for him to do it an area with other black people. While Rainbow gets along well enough with white people because he is so helpful, good-natured, and hard-working, Handie knows that white people don’t always treat Rainbow as well as they should, and he thinks that Rainbow would be happier with people who are like him.

Rainbow says that what he would really like to do eventually is to move to Boston and work for Colonel Hammond, the man who loaned him money to buy Lucky. Rainbow thinks he would enjoy taking care of Colonel Hammond’s horses and driving his carriage, and maybe he could buy a little house for himself so he can go to his own home in the evening. He also thinks that he would like to marry Rosalinda some day, although he hesitates to say that part out loud.

My Reaction

Like the other books in this series, and the series itself in general, this story is mostly slice-of-life, giving readers a look at life in the past. Originally, the places and situations in the book would have been familiar parts of daily life for its intended audience of children in the mid-19th century. Its descriptions of daily things like how blacksmiths make nails or the finer points of making wooden whistles would have just added detail to what would have been familiar to 19th century children. To people reading it in the 21st century, it adds color and dimension to the lives of people in the past, allowing us to picture the ordinary things they would do every day and to get a sense of the things they would have known.

There are adventurous aspects of the story, where Rainbow almost meets with disaster, but no matter what the situation, things always turn out well for him in the end. Sometimes, it seemed to me like the author/narrator built up excitement over Rainbow’s predicament, only for the problems to be solved more easily than expected, which can feel a little deflating. However, it is also reassuring that nothing truly disastrous happens to Rainbow and Lucky in the end, making a gentler read.

Racial Language in the 19th Century

Although most of the emphasis of these stories is on daily life, and they’re pretty gentle to read, racial issues are always in the background. Rainbow is always aware that white people look at him differently because of his race, and that this can be a source of potential problems. It’s one of the reasons why he goes out of his way to build up good will with other people, so people come to like him and treat him better. For the most part, this strategy works. The author intended the stories to be educational for children, and there is a lot in the series about how to understand and get along with other people.

Sometimes, people say rude things to Rainbow about his race and appearance. There are three instances where the n-word is used in the entire series, once in the third book, Three Pines, and two times in one scene in this final book, although there are also other, lesser derogatory comments. In vintage children’s books, the way people speak can be clues to their character, and the author of this series particularly likes to examine people’s character and motives. In the second book in the series, Rainbow’s Journey, we had the example of a disreputable man who turns out to be a thief. He is the first person who makes derogatory comments about Rainbow and insists that he doesn’t want to sit near him on the stage coach. Trigget, who is driving the stage coach, tells him off for doing that, and other people laugh at him because they know that he is a disreputable and ill-mannered person in general. I’ve seen other vintage children’s books that use derogatory racial language and attitudes as signs that a character is ill-bred or generally ignorant.

What interested me about this particular series is that the people who use the n-word, characterized as the worst possible language to use, are not the worst characters, just as people. I found that interesting because the characters’ badness wasn’t directly proportionate to the bad language they used. The first person to use the n-word, in the third book, does it during a tirade against Rainbow because he has come to deliver Handie’s refusal to loan her his saw. Basically, she throws a temper tantrum, and she uses the worst possible language she can against the messenger while she’s having her fit just because she’s angry and wants to make him feel as bad as she feels. It’s simply childishness. During their interactions with her and descriptions of how well she doesn’t get along with her other neighbors, the author makes it clear that she is a highly emotional person with little or no sense of self-control, what we might call “no filter” today. For whatever reason, she has little or no ability to regulate her emotions or control the way she expresses them, like she’s permanently stuck in her terrible twos as an adult. Other people besides Rainbow also find her difficult to deal with because of the way she acts, and even she sometimes feels embarrassed about the things she says and does. However, she gradually becomes a more helpful and sympathetic character because the kind, controlled way that Handie and Rainbow respond to her inspires her to improve herself and to put forth a better image.

The two men who use the n-word in this story are different from all of the above. The author characterizes them as being merely thoughtless, especially the first man to do it. I partly believe that because, even after getting to know Rainbow better and appreciating his help, they don’t seem to experience any regret or even realize just how aggravating and offensive Rainbow found their language. The first man in particular, who just casually calls Rainbow the n-word when he’s idly wondering who he is the first time he approaches, is totally clueless. The author characterizes him as being a good man who says his prayers and later even adds a prayer for Rainbow because he’s grateful for Rainbow’s help, never even seems to have an inkling of the bad impression he made on Rainbow with just that comment. In the end, he focuses on how pleased he himself is with Rainbow’s help and totally misses that he’s not completely satisfactory in his own behavior. Rainbow is reconciled to that and appreciates when the man behaves better, accepting him for what he is, but it rankles with me because this man is, in fact, a grown man, and grown people without a clue are just plain aggravating. It just never even dawns on him that he’s done anything that anybody even might object to, and that level of obliviousness drives me crazy. Now, some modern readers might just brush this off as “just the way people talked bad then” and that he didn’t put enough thought into it to really mean anything by it, but I’m not buying it in this instance, for two reasons. In the first place, not everybody is talking like this. Some people realize that this is an ill-mannered and inappropriate way to talk, and they say so. Second, the second man’s comment adds a qualifier on this word that implies that there was more thought behind this comment that even the author of the book isn’t going into.

After the first man makes that off-handed slur, the second man uses the n-word himself, but he does it in the context of telling the first man not to say that until he finds out “whether he deserves it,” meaning whether Rainbow deserves it. It’s this qualifying statement, which is never explained, that makes me uneasy about the assertion that these guys are just “thoughtless.” In order for there to be an evaluation of who “deserves” this language and who doesn’t, there has to be a certain amount of thought into what the term implies and some kind of standard to judge who fits this term and who doesn’t. Rainbow takes the second man’s comment as reassuring, that the man is giving him a chance to prove himself without judging him immediately, but it doesn’t reassure me because I can tell that there is some standard being applied here, it’s a standard that both of the men seem to understand and believe in, I think it’s a negative standard, and I don’t have confidence in their ability to accurately assess other people.

There are reasons why Rainbow and others feel especially insulted by this word and why it’s considered even worse than other words that are also considered rude. To put it mildly, the n-word implies highly unfavorable things about the person being described, and it implies them to a greater degree even that other insulting words. In general, it carries connotations of worthlessness and a sub-human, animal-like state. I know that the men in the story are definitely thinking about some of the unfavorable implications and evaluating them seriously because the second man says that they will see if Rainbow “deserves” the term in a way that says he realizes that the first man may be insulting Rainbow needlessly. I guess it’s nicer to give Rainbow a chance to show his true character before they render judgement, but it’s still troubling because this conversation reveals that these characters do believe that some of the implications of the n-word are accurate about some people and that they think themselves accurate judges of that. It bothers me because I don’t believe either of those things. While I don’t like some people, I don’t think that calling someone sub-human or worthless, particularly just based on race. Also, I have no confidence in the standards or abilities of these people to accurately assess the relative worth of their fellow human beings in general. To be blunt, I believe that self-awareness is a prerequisite for understanding other people, and I don’t think either of these men have much self-awareness. The fact that both men have totally missed the affect that their attitudes have on Rainbow and the effort he has to make to work with them for free just to help them that day makes me think that neither one of them has the capacity to be accurate in their general understanding of other people or to read any individual in particular, even though they have appointed themselves as the judges of the situation. Even after spending all afternoon with him and seeming to get along with him, even noting his initial hesitation to accept the offer to stay for dinner, they still don’t get it. They just never give it a second thought.

You might wonder why does that bothers me so much, if they all managed to get along well enough anyway. I’ll tell you why. How many other people do you suppose they’ve labeled n-words before because those people reacted negatively to them, specifically because they’re clueless and provoked them, and they’ve just never had the self-awareness to realize that they caused it all themselves? I don’t know the overall number, but I could guess that the percentage is likely 100%. Because they have no self-awareness or situational awareness, they casually create bad impressions with the first words out of their mouths. The casual nature of their behavior indicates that this is habitual with them. They are completely comfortable with doing something that makes everyone else uncomfortable because they do it often and think nothing of it.

The author somewhat implies that these men are likely to provoke negative reactions from black people they just casually meet by pointing out that Rainbow could have turned around and walked away at the first mention of the n-word. The only reason why he didn’t do that and leave them there, probably saying that he must have been an n-word, is that he decided to give them a second chance when they didn’t even know that they’d blown the first impression. Rainbow didn’t really have to give them that chance since he was planning to volunteer his services to them, and he didn’t owe them his time or work. Many other people, including me, probably would have walked away with maybe a dirty look and not a single word, and these guys wouldn’t have had a clue why. These guys would probably mutter “What’s their problem?” to that reaction, never realizing that the only problem is their behavior. It bothers me that, even after getting to know Rainbow better, they still don’t know that they almost drove him away or why, and they don’t seem to have any regrets about what they said or realize that Rainbow ever had a problem with it. Because they don’t realize that their behavior is a problem, they’re probably going to do it again with someone else because no real lessons have been learned here. While they have apparently labeled Rainbow as “not an n-word” kind of black person in their minds, nothing has changed the notion that they still have that other people are, so they will probably repeat this process with other black people they meet, cluelessly provoking others and probably blaming them for being provoked. Until someone lays it out for them, they’re just not going to get it, and even then, they might still not because they feel justified and don’t see themselves as others see them.

I’ve said it before that some of the world’s most judgemental people often forget that other people can also look back at them and make their own evaluations of their behavior and character. The author of the story may consider these men as basically good but thoughtless, but bringing up the subject of who “deserves” to be called certain things also raises the question of who really deserves the label of “good.” “Good” is a relative term that comes with levels and gradations. I’d like to to make it plain that, while these men may be good in some ways, I don’t see them as being as good as other characters who also do good things but without talking the way they do. While I’m sure that they’re more law-abiding than the thief from the second book in general character, they rank behind many other characters in my evaluation. Handie, Trigget, and the Holdens all come before them in my estimation, for several reasons. Not only are these characters demonstrably ethical in their dealings with other people, but they give Rainbow a chance to demonstrate his good side to them without making it clear that they were factoring his race/appearance into their assessment of his character. In fact, they explicitly make it clear that they will not do that. More than that, each of them also stands up for Rainbow and/or shows consideration for his well-being. The take his feelings and situation into account, where the men we’re discussing are mostly concerned with what Rainbow can do for them. Even though they later pray for him, the prayer is based around what Rainbow did for them. While I like the fact that they’re showing gratitude for what they’ve received, which is a positive trait, that sense that they’re approaching it from the angle that Rainbow turned out to be a pretty good guy for someone who might have been just an n-word takes the shine off the apple.

It occurs to me that, in pointing out that these men are “good” in spite of their bad/thoughtless behavior, in a way, the author is almost repeating the sentiment of the man who said that they shouldn’t use derogatory language against Rainbow until they see whether or not he deserves to be regarded in a derogatory way. The author seems to be trying to look on the positive side and to encourage readers to find the positive side of other people, even ones who behave badly, but at the same time, there does seem to be an acknowledgement that they did behave badly and that it would take extra effort to get past that bad behavior to their better sides and to see that they might not be totally bad. Yes, these men are acting like rude and clueless racists. However, there is apparently more to their personalities than that. The author would like us to reserve judgement on these men long enough for them to show their true natures and demonstrate that, in fact, they are thoughtlessly rude and clueless and also seem to have some racist attitudes, but they can make exceptions to their racist preconceptions to accept good deeds from particular individuals whom they might otherwise have disdained for their race and remember to be thankful for what they have received and say their prayers.

The second part of that is good, but the first part of that hasn’t gone away. Maybe that’s less bad than if the sum total of their personalities was to swagger around and dish out the slurs and crude language, but less bad isn’t quite the same as “good.” They show gratitude after receiving something but not graciousness on meeting. To me, their up sides just doesn’t make me feel that much better about them, especially since these guys don’t seem to have learned anything from the experience and seem likely to repeat it. At least, Mrs. Blooman learned something and improved. These guys just managed to get through an afternoon and make a business deal for continued services for their project. I can see that the author is trying to demonstrate how issues like this can be smoothed over with good behavior on the part of other people so that people can get along, but I just find it difficult to buy the assertion that these men are that much better than they first seem to be when their good sides don’t seem to have an affect on their bad ones, and they don’t demonstrate a change in thinking or behavior.

After all my analyzing and ranting, what do I think of this book’s potential to teach us more about racial attitudes and interactions during the mid-19th century?

First, I like the fact that the author examines different types of characters who have different motives for their behavior. Human beings have wide-ranging personality types, and I can believe that each of the characters in the story represents the behavior and personality type of people who really existed. I can believe that a genuinely shady person, like the thief, would also have crude manners or racist beliefs due to a bad upbringing or general anti-social attitudes. (I’m guessing that someone who makes their living by taking advantage of their fellow humans and their belongings generally doesn’t hold other people in high regard and might have disdain for particular groups of people.) I have seen people with temperamental natures and poor impulse control, like Mrs. Blooman, and I can believe that someone like her could say some pretty awful things without necessarily meaning them seriously just because she’s lashing out at others during a tantrum. I could believe that the author might have based her on someone he’d seen in real life. I do also believe that the descriptions of the men using the n-word in this book could be realistic, even though I’ve already explained (ranted) about how I don’t look at them quite the way the author does. I believe that they are thoughtless and that they don’t realize the real problems with their behavior or the effect they have on others because they don’t examine their own motives or look at their behavior from someone else’s perspective. They probably also think that they are basically okay because they’re religious, even while provoking people and testing their patience (including mine). All of these types of people seem realistic enough, and some even remind me of people I’ve seen.

However, the second point to keep in mind that the author’s main goal is to write educational stories for children. He’s always in the role of teacher, whether he’s explaining the fine details behind daily things, examining people’s characters, or offering advice on how to behave or deal with someone else’s behavior. Because he is trying to demonstrate the ways that people should act and how people can be influenced to improve their behavior, even the problem people Rainbow meets can generally be managed, and some of them really do improve, at least to some degree. The author is trying to encourage positive behavior and positive outlooks in his young readers.

While I think that his attempts to set good examples are excellent, part of me knows that, in real life, not everybody really does change for the better from the kind behavior of people they disdain. In fact, some people can become increasingly resentful when someone they don’t like seems to be behaving better than they are because they feel like the other person is just acting that way to show them up, so they act contrary to good behavior the other person is showing just to make it clear that the other person can’t influence them. (In modern terms, “vice-signalling” as a response to “virtue-signalling.” ex. “Oh, you don’t like the Confederate flag? Well, I’ve got it waving outside my house, and I’m gonna get it painted on my truck and wear a shirt with it every day! I’ll show you!”) Mrs. Blooman changes her behavior because she feels ashamed of her lack of control and inspired to improve by seeing how well Handie and Rainbow behave. However, in real life, other people might double down on their bad behavior because they feel like they’ve got something to prove, like they’re “strong” for not being influenced by anybody, not even for the better, or because they want to show that they’ve got contempt for other people, no matter what they do. The examples of people and behavior that the author shows throughout this series tend to lean toward the milder side, although there are small implications that Rainbow has seen worse before and that worse and less manageable people are out there.

There are some instances where the author references more difficult and more racist people without directly showing them in the story. For example, we know from the first book in the series that Rainbow wasn’t allowed to go to the small school in his small town because people made it clear that he wasn’t welcome there. Yet, we don’t really see the people in his town abusing him, and people generally seem to like him for being good-natured. Even though we don’t see the people in his town being bad to him or disliking him, we know that they don’t fully accept him and that some have particularly excluded him. When the lawyer managing Handie’s inheritance tells him that he might run into trouble while traveling with Rainbow because some people might not be willing to rent a room to a black person or have a black person dine with them, I expected that this would happen at some point in the story, but it never does. There’s never an instance where they have to try more than one inn, tavern, or boarding house because they are refused service at the first one they tried. There is just that acknowledgement that some people are like that and that it causes problems, but the author doesn’t provide examples of some of the people with the worst behavior.

Overall, my feeling is that the books demonstrate not how everyone behaved during the mid-19th century but how the author would like young readers to behave and how they should respond to examples of poor behavior from other people without becoming angry and overly negative. I think these are useful lessons, and I’d like to think that at least some of the author’s young readers benefited from them. Some pieces of advice that the author provides make sense to me, like maintaining your own good behavior and kindness even in the face of provocation and leaving other people with the echoes of their own bad words rather than returning a flippant comment that might turn negative attention on yourself. The author does provide some insight on how people thought and behaved during the 19th century and how they wanted to inspire the next generation to behave for the better. However, I do know that, in real life, there are even more variations of people that the author doesn’t delve into, particularly some of the more harmful kinds, who do more than just use a bad word, and the kinds that are less likely to change. I think that a modern version of the same story would probably feature some of these darker elements of human behavior, although I also think it would do a disservice to the nature of the story to go too far in the negative direction and forget the positive side that the author wanted to promote. In general, I prefer a balanced approach that includes both the more negative aspects of humanity and the positive ones because I think reality does combine both.

Children’s Curiosity and Questions

There is one final issue that I’d like to discuss, and that’s the author’s thoughts aobut adults who don’t want to answer children’s questions or try to prevent children from asking questions about difficult topics. The author points out that some adults feel like the children aren’t ready to hear the answers for the questions they’re asking, but the truth is that the questions themselves are the children’s attempts to gain knowledge and make themselves ready for growing up and living in the world. Often, the adults’ insecurity with their ability to handle difficult questions from children that are the problem. It does matter how you answer children’s questions at their level of understanding, and I think the author is correct that it’s best to take things in steps. My own thought is that if kids are ready to ask a question, they are ready to hear an answer, although as the author points out, it doesn’t have to be the most detailed or complete answer. Partial ones can do for a beginning with more details provided later. You can figure out the steps to take by talking to the children and figuring out where they are in their current understanding, but if you shut down their discussion and questions, you’ve closed off that insight into what the children know and really need to understand.

I think that this issue of what children are ready to ask or to learn relates to children’s literature in modern censorship issues. Some adults want more control over what their children read because they think that they aren’t ready for certain things or that certain things will never be appropriate for their kids. Yet, if the kids didn’t have enough understanding about particular topics to be curious about them and want more information or have the reading level necessary for books on these topics, maybe the case is more that the kids are more ready to tackle the tough issues of life than the parents are to see their kids starting to understand these things.

I really don’t have any personal experience of adults censoring my reading when I was a child. My own parents never restricted the books I read or told me that I couldn’t read certain things. They weren’t hanging over my shoulder all the time while I was looking up books at the library or looking through what I selected before I checked it out, although they did talk to me about what I was reading. That wasn’t just because they were playing the Knowledge Police; it was more because my parents just generally liked to talk to me and to know what I was thinking about and what was going on in my life. As an adult looking back, I think that my parents just being interested in my thoughts and approaching issues as part of a conversation instead of a lecture probably did more for me in terms of increasing my range of understanding and methods of expressing myself than if they had tried to be authoritarian and controlling.

My parents also liked to read, and they would tell me about books they were reading, so I would tell them about what I was reading. We could and did talk about things that bothered me or questions I had. The way I evaluate books on this blog or rant about issues and characters I don’t like are pretty much the way I’ve always talked about these things with my parents and friends and, really, anybody who would sit still long enough. Generally, my family is full of people with strong opinions, and we are not usually the type to keep things to ourselves when there are things that bother us. We also do not tend to let go of things we don’t understand, at least not easily. Because my parents and I talked to each other, they generally knew what was going on with me, when there was a complicated issue bothering me, and if I had questions about things. Because they liked to explain things as much as I do, I typically would get an answer to whatever I asked. If I brought up a topic that they didn’t approve of, they would just tell me why they didn’t like it, just like I now explain the parts of books I don’t like. The more I think about it, the more I think that my wide-ranging interesting and the way I express myself in writing are really reflections of what I was allowed to read and talk about when I was young. At this point, I could well imagine that people who don’t like some of the things that I have to say or how wordy I am when I say them taking this as evidence that shutting down children’s conversation and limiting their range of knowledge and self-expression may have some benefits, but that’s the risk we all take.