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

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