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03 - The Box Car Children - Gertrude Warner · Adventure Books Collection

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  Chapter three, Shelter. When Jess opened her eyes, it must have been
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  about ten o'clock in the morning. She sat up and looked all around her.
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  She could dimly see the opening where they had come into the woods.
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  She looked around to see that her family was still safely by her. Then
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  she looked up at the sky. At first she thought it must still be
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  night, and then she realized that the darkness was caused by an approaching storm.
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  Whatever, whatever shall we do now, demanded Jess of the air.
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  She got up and looked in every direction for shelter. She even walked quite
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  a little way into the woods and down a hill, and there she stood,
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  not knowing what to do next. I shall have to wake Henry up,
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  she said at last, Only how I hate too. As she spoke,
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  she glanced into the forest, and her feet felt as if they were
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  nailed to the ground. She could not stir. Faintly, outlined among the
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  trees, Jess saw an old freight or box car. Her first thought was
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  one of fear, her second hope for shelter. As she thought of shelter,
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  her feet moved and she stumbled toward it. It really was a freight
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  car. She felt of it. It stood on rusty, broken rails,
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  which were nearly covered with dead leaves. Then the thunder cracked overhead. Jess
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  came to her usual senses and started back for Henry, flying like the wind.
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  He was awake, looking anxiously overhead. He had not noticed that Jess
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  was missing. Come, panted Jess, I've found a place. Hurry,
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  hurry. Henry did not stop to ask questions. He picked up Benny,
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  telling Violet to gather up the hay, and then they ran headlong through the
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  thick underbrush in Jess's wake, seeing their way only too well by the sharp
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  flashes of lightning. It's beginning to sprinkle, gasped Henry. We'll get there
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  all right, Jess shouted back, it's not far. Be all ready to
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  help me open the door when we get there. By sheer good fortune,
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  a big tree stump stood under the door of the freight car, or the
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  children never could have opened it as it was. Jess sprang up on the
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  stump, and Henry, pausing to lay Henry down, did likewise. Together
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  they rolled back the heavy door about a foot. That's enough, panted Jess.
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  I'll get in, and you hand Benny up to me, No,
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  said Henry quietly, I must see first. If anyone is in there,
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  it will rain, protested Jess, nothing will hurt me. But she knew
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  it was useless to argue with Henry, so she hastily groped in the bag
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  for the matches and handed them to her brother. It must be confessed that
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  Jess held her breath while Henry struck one and peered about inside the car.
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  All's well, he reported, Come in, everybody. Violet passed the hay
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  up to her brother and crawled in herself. Then Jess handed Benny up like
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  a package of groceries, and taking one last look at the angry sky and
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  waving trees, she climbed in after him. The two children managed to roll
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  the door back so that the crack was completely closed before the storm broke,
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  But at that very instant it broke with a vengeance. It seemed to the
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  children that the sky would split, so sharp were the cracks of thunder,
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  But not a drop of rain reached them. In their roomy retreat, they
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  could see nothing at all, for the freight car was tightly made, and
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  all outside was nearly as black as night. Through it all, Benny slept
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  on Presently, the thunder grew fainter and rumbled away down the valley, and
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  the rain spent itself. Only the drip from the trees on the top of
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  the could be heard. Then Henry ventured to open the door. He knelt
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  on his hands and knees and thrust his head out. The warm sunlight was
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  filtering through the trees, making golden pools of light here and there. The
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  beautiful trees, pines and white birches and oaks grew thickly around, and the
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  ground was carpeted with flowers and wonderful ferns more than a yard high. But
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  most miraculous of all was a miniature waterfall, small but perfect, where the
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  same little brown brook fell gracefully over some ledges and danced away down the glen.
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  In an instant, Jess and Violet were looking over Henry's shoulder at the
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  pretty sight. How different everything looks with the sun shining, exclaimed Jess.
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  Things will soon be dry at this rate. It must be about noon,
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  observed Henry, looking at the sun, and as he spoke, the faint
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  echo of mill bells in the distance was heard. Henry said Jess sharply,
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  let's live here, live here, repeated Henry. Dully. Yes, why
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  not, replied Jess. Nobody uses this car, and it's dry and warm.
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  We're quite far away, and yet we are near enough to a town
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  so we can buy things, and we're near water, added Violet. Jess
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  hugged her sister. So we are, little mouse, she said, the
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  most important thing of all, but began Henry. Please, Henry, said
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  Jess excitedly. I could make this old freight car into the dearest little house
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  with beds and chairs and a table and dishes. I'd like to live here
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  too, said a determined little voice from the corner. But I don't want
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  to unless unless what asked Henry, panic stricken, unless I can have my
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  dinner, Benny finished anxiously. We'll have something to eat right away, old
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  fellow, said Henry, thankful it was no worse, for he himself was
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  beginning to see what a cozy home the car really would make. Jess cut
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  the last loaf of bread into four pieces, but alas it was very dry,
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  the children were so hungry that they tore it with their teeth like little
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  dogs. But Benny was nearly crying. He did not actually cry, however,
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  for just At the crucial moment, Violet started a funny story about cinnamon
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  bear eating bread crusts out of the ash can. He ought to have milk,
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  said Jess quietly to Henry. He shall have milk, replied Henry,
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  I'll go down the railroad track to the town and get some. Jess counted
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  out a dollar in ten times and handed it to Henry. By the time
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  our four dollars are gone, you will have some work to do, she
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  said. All the same, Henry did not like to begin his trip.
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  How I hate to leave you alone, Jess, he said miserably. Oh,
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  don't you worry, began lightly. We'll have a surprise for you when
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  you come back. You just wait and see, and she nodded her head
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  wisely. As Henry walked off through the woods. The moment he was out
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  of sight, she turned to Benny and Violet, now children, she said,
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  what do you think we're going to do? Do you know what I
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  saw over in the sunny part of the woods. I saw some blueberries?
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  Oh oh, cried Benny, who knew what blueberries were. Can't we have
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  some blueberries and milk? We certainly, began Jess, but the sentence was
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  never finished for a sharp crackle of dry leaves was heard. Something was moving
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  in the woods. End of chapter three