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11 - The Box Car Children - Gertrude Warner · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven, More Education. With twenty five dollars in his hand,
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  Speaker 1: Henry felt like a millionaire as he edged through the
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  Speaker 1: crowd to the gate. That's the boy, he heard many
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  Speaker 1: a person say when he was forced to hold his
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  Speaker 1: silver cup in view out of harm's way. When doctor
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  Speaker 1: mc allister drove into his yard, he found a boy
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  Speaker 1: washing the concrete drives, as calmly as if nothing had happened.
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  Speaker 1: He chuckled quietly, for he had stopped at the fair
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  Speaker 1: grounds for a few minutes himself and held a little
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  Speaker 1: conversation with his score keeper. When Henry faithfully repeated the
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  Speaker 1: list of winners, however, he said nothing about it. What
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  Speaker 1: are you going to do with the prize, queried doctor
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  Speaker 1: mc allister. Put it in the savings bank, I guess,
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  Speaker 1: replied Henry. Have you an account? Asked his friend. No,
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  Speaker 1: But just as it's high time we started one good
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  Speaker 1: for Jess, said the doctor absently. I remember an old
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  Speaker 1: uncle of mine who put two hundred dollars in the
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  Speaker 1: savings bank and forgot all about it. He left it
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  Speaker 1: in there till he died, and it came to me
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  Speaker 1: it amounted to sixteen hundred dollars. Whew. Said Henry. He
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  Speaker 1: left it alone for over forty years, you see, explained
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  Speaker 1: doctor mc allister. When Henry arrived at his little home
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  Speaker 1: in the woods with the twenty five dollars for he
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  Speaker 1: never thought of putting it in the bank. Before Jess
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  Speaker 1: saw it, he found a delicious lunch waiting for him.
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  Speaker 1: Jess had boiled the little vegetables in clear water, and
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  Speaker 1: the moment they were done, she had drained off the
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  Speaker 1: water in a remarkable drainer and heaped them on the
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  Speaker 1: biggest dish with melted butter on top. His family almost
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  Speaker 1: forgot to eat while Henry recounted the details of the
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  Speaker 1: exciting race, and when he showed them the silver cup
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  Speaker 1: and the money, they actually did stop eating, hungry as
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  Speaker 1: they were. I said, my name was Henry, James repeated Henry.
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  Speaker 1: That's all right, so it is, affirmed Jess. It's clever too.
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  Speaker 1: You can use that name for your bank book. So
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  Speaker 1: I can, said Henry, delighted. I'll put it in the
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  Speaker 1: bank this very afternoon. And by the way, I brought
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  Speaker 1: something for dinner to night. Jess looked in the bag.
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  Speaker 1: There were a dozen smooth brown potatoes. I know how
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  Speaker 1: to cook those, said Jess, nodding her head wisely. You'd
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  Speaker 1: just wait. Can't wait hardly, Henry called back, as he
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  Speaker 1: went to work. When he had gone, Benny frolicked around
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  Speaker 1: noisily with the dog. Benny. Jess exclaimed suddenly, as she
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  Speaker 1: hung her dish towels up to dry. It's high time
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  Speaker 1: you learned to read. No school now, said Benny hopefully. No,
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  Speaker 1: but I can teach you if I only had a primmer.
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  Speaker 1: Let's make one, suggested Violet, shaking her hair back. We
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  Speaker 1: have saved all the wrapping paper off the bundles, you know.
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  Speaker 1: Jess was staring off into space, as she always did
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  Speaker 1: when she had a bright idea. Violet, she cried, at last,
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  Speaker 1: remember those chips. We could whittle out letters like type,
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  Speaker 1: make each letter backwards, you know, and stamp them on paper,
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  Speaker 1: finished Violet. There would be only twenty six in all.
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  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be awfully hard, said Jess. We wouldn't bother
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  Speaker 1: with capitals. What could we use for ink? Violet wondered,
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  Speaker 1: wrinkling her forehead. BlackBerry juice, cried Jess. The two girls
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  Speaker 1: clapped their hands. Won't Henry be surprised when he finds
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  Speaker 1: that Benny can read now. From this conversation, Benny gathered
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  Speaker 1: that this type business would take his sisters quite a
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  Speaker 1: while to prepare, so he was not much worried about
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  Speaker 1: his part of the work. In fact, he sorted out
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  Speaker 1: chips very cheerfully and watched his sisters with interest as
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  Speaker 1: they dug carefully around the letters with the two knives.
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  Speaker 1: We'll teach him two words to begin with, said Jess.
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  Speaker 1: Then we won't have to make the whole alphabet at once.
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  Speaker 1: Let's begin to teach him. See that's easy, agreed Violet.
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  Speaker 1: And then we won't have to make but two letters,
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  Speaker 1: S and E. And the other word will be me,
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  Speaker 1: cried Jess. So only three pieces of type in all, Violet.
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  Speaker 1: Jess cut the wiggly s because she had the better knife,
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  Speaker 1: while Violet struggled with the E. Then Jess cut out
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful M while Violet sewed the primmer down the
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  Speaker 1: back and gathered a cupful of blackberries. As she sat by,
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  Speaker 1: crushing the juice from the berries with a stick, Jess
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  Speaker 1: planned the ink pad. We'll have to use a small
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  Speaker 1: piece of the washcloth, I'm afraid, she said. At last,
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  Speaker 1: but finally they were obliged to cut off only the
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  Speaker 1: uneven bits of cloth which hung around the edges. These
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  Speaker 1: they used for stuffing for the pad, and covered them
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  Speaker 1: with a pocket, which Violet carefully ripped from her apron.
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  Speaker 1: When this was sewed firmly into place and put into
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  Speaker 1: a small saucer, Jess poured on the purple juice. Even
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  Speaker 1: Benny came up on his hands. Needs to watch her
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  Speaker 1: stamp the first s. It came out beautifully on the
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  Speaker 1: first page of the primmer, purple and clean cut. The
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  Speaker 1: e was almost as good, and as for the m
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  Speaker 1: Jess's hand shook with pure pride as she stamped it
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  Speaker 1: evenly on the page. At last, the two words were completed.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, they were done long before Benny had the
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  Speaker 1: slightest idea his sisters were ready for him. He came
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  Speaker 1: willingly enough for his first lesson, but he could not
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  Speaker 1: tell the two words apart. Don't you see, Benny, Jess
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  Speaker 1: explained patiently, this one with a wiggly s says c
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  Speaker 1: But Benny did not see. I'll tell you, Jess, said Violet.
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  Speaker 1: At last, let's print each word again on a separate card.
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  Speaker 1: That's the way they do at school, And then let
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  Speaker 1: him point to c The girls did this using squares
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  Speaker 1: of stiff brown paper. Then they called Benny. Very carefully,
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  Speaker 1: Jess explained again which words said, see hissing like a
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  Speaker 1: huge snake, to show him how the s sounded. Then
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  Speaker 1: she mixed the cards and said, encouragingly, now Benny point
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  Speaker 1: to see. Benny did not move. He sat with his
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  Speaker 1: finger on his lip. But the children were nearly petrified
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  Speaker 1: with astonishment to see Watch cock his head on one
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  Speaker 1: side and gravely put his paw on the center of
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  Speaker 1: the word. Now this was only an accident. Watch did
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  Speaker 1: not really know one of the words from the other,
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  Speaker 1: but Benny thought he did. And was he going to
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  Speaker 1: let a dog get ahead of him? Not Benny. In
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  Speaker 1: less time than it takes to tell it, Benny had
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  Speaker 1: learned both words perfectly. Good old Watch, said Jess. It
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  Speaker 1: isn't really hard at all, said Benny, is it? Watch?
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  Speaker 1: During all this experiment, Jess had not forgotten her dinner.
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  Speaker 1: When you are living outdoors all the time, you do
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  Speaker 1: not forget things like that. In fact, both girls had
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  Speaker 1: learned to tell the time very accurately. By the sun,
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  Speaker 1: Jess started up a beautiful little fire of cones as
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  Speaker 1: they turned into red hot ashes, and began to topple
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  Speaker 1: over one by one into the glowing pile. Jess laughed delightedly.
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  Speaker 1: She had already scrubbed the smooth potatoes and dried them carefully.
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  Speaker 1: She now poked them one by one into the glowing
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  Speaker 1: ashes with a stick from a birch tree. Whenever a
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  Speaker 1: potato lit up dangerously, she gave it a poke into
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  Speaker 1: a new position. And when Henry found her, she was
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  Speaker 1: just rolling the charred balls out onto the flat stones.
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  Speaker 1: Burned em up, queried Henry. Burned nothing, cried Jess energetically.
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  Speaker 1: You just wait. Can't wait, hardly, replied Henry, smiling. You
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  Speaker 1: said that a long time ago, said Benny. Well, isn't
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  Speaker 1: it true, demanded Henry, rolling his brother over on the
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  Speaker 1: pine needles, Come, said Violet, breathlessly, forgetting to ring the bell.
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  Speaker 1: Hold them with leaves, directed Jess, because they're terribly hot.
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  Speaker 1: Knock them on the side and scoop them out with
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  Speaker 1: a spoon, and put butter on top. The children did
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  Speaker 1: as the little cook requested, sprinkled on a little salt
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  Speaker 1: from the salt shaker, and took a taste. Ah, said Henry.
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  Speaker 1: It's good, said Benny. Blissfully. It was about the most
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  Speaker 1: successful meal of all. In fact, when the children in
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  Speaker 1: later years recalled their different feasts, they always came back
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  Speaker 1: to the baked potatoes roasted in the ashes of the
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  Speaker 1: pine cones. Henry said it was because they were poked
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  Speaker 1: with a black birch stick. Benny said it was because
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  Speaker 1: Jess nearly burned them up. Jess herself said maybe it
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  Speaker 1: was the remarkable salt shaker, which had to stand on
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  Speaker 1: its head always because there was no floor to it.
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  Speaker 1: After supper, the children still were not too sleepy to
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  Speaker 1: show Henry the new primmer and allow Benny to display
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  Speaker 1: first reading lesson. Henry, greatly taken with the idea, sat
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  Speaker 1: up until it was almost dark, chipping out the remaining
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  Speaker 1: letters of the alphabet. If you should ever care to
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  Speaker 1: see this interesting primer, which was finally ten pages in length,
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  Speaker 1: you might examine this faithful copy of its first page,
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  Speaker 1: which required four days for its completion. Illustration See me
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  Speaker 1: see me, Oh, oh, see me, Come come to me,
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  Speaker 1: Come to see me, cat rat. Henry always insisted that
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  Speaker 1: the rat's tale was too long, but Jess said his
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  Speaker 1: knife must have slipped when he was making the a,
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  Speaker 1: so they were even after all end of chapter eleven.