The Box-Car Children

by Gertrude Chandler Warner

  AT HOME

  Jess and Henry had a short committee meeting next morning before theothers awoke. It was agreed that nobody should be allowed to stray offinto the woods alone, not even the dog. And with much mystery Henry leftsome orders with all of them, as to what they should build for himduring the morning.

  "What for?" asked Benny.

  "Shan't tell, old fellow," teased Henry. "You just build it, and you'llsee later."

  So Henry walked briskly through the woods, feeling sure that the noisein the night had been made by a rabbit.

  Having no watch, Henry made a slight mistake by appearing at the youngdoctor's door before eight o'clock. He was just in time to meet thedoctor coming in from a night call.

  If Henry had not been so eager to begin work, he would have noticed howthe young man's dark eyes examined him from head to foot, even to hisplastered hair, wet with brook water. It was not the doctor who directedhis work, but the doctor's mother--the sweet-faced Mrs. McAllister,whose heart was centered in her son and her vegetable garden.

  Her heart warmed to the boy when she saw how carefully he thinned outthe carrots, which had been sadly neglected.

  "I have been so busy," she declared, "that I have actually stayed awakenights worrying about these carrots. There--see that?" She pulled out afairly good-sized carrot as she spoke. It had to come out, for it wasmuch too near its neighbors. In fact, when Henry had thinned out half arow he had quite a little pile of eatable carrots, each as large as histhumb. When Mrs. McAllister saw Henry deftly press the earth back againaround the carrots which remained standing, she left him quietly with asmile. Here was a gardener whom she could trust.

  Henry worked steadily in the hot sun, completing row after row ofcarrots, parsnips, and onions. When the mill bells rang at noon heworked on, without noticing that his employer was again watching him.

  When he did at last notice her he asked her, smiling, what she wanteddone with the things he had pulled up.

  "Oh, throw them away," she said indifferently. "Toss them over into theorchard, and sometime we'll burn them when they get dry."

  "Do you mind if I take them myself?" asked Henry, hesitatingly.

  "Oh, no," said Mrs. McAllister cordially. "Have you chickens? That willbe fine."

  Henry was thankful that she went right along without waiting for ananswer. But in a way he did have chickens, he thought.

  "You must stop working now," she said. "Any time you want to dosomething, there will be a place for you here." She gave him a dollarbill, and left the delighted boy with the piles of precious littlevegetables. As long as Henry expected to return so soon, he hastilyselected an orderly bunch of the largest of the carrots and the smallestof the onions. He added a few of the miniature parsnips for goodmeasure. They looked like dolls' vegetables. When Henry walked down thedrive with his "bouquet," he would have seen a face at the window if hehad looked up. But he did not look up. He was too anxious to get to thelittle old man's shop and order his meat.

  So it happened that Henry walked in upon his little family at about twoo'clock with all the materials for a feast. The feast could not be madeready before night, Jess hastened to explain to Benny, who was perfectlysatisfied anyway with bread and milk in his pink cup.

  "Your building is done," Benny informed his brother. "I builded lots ofit."

  "He really did," agreed Violet, leading the way to the sunny open spot atrifle behind the house. The "building" was a fireplace. With anenormous amount of labor, the children had made quite a hollow at thebase of a rock. This was lined completely with flat stones. More flatstones had been set on end to keep out the wind. On top of the stoneslay the most wonderful collection of firewood that you can imagine, allready to light. There were chips and bits of crumpled paper, pine cones,and dry twigs. Beside the big rock was a woodpile. The children hadapparently been working like beavers all the morning. Jess had found aheavy wire in the dump, and had fastened it between two trees. On thewire the kettle swung merrily.

  "Fine! Fine!" shouted Henry when he saw it. "I couldn't have done it sowell myself." And he honestly believed it.

  "We have dinner at night, here," observed Jess impressively. "What didyou buy?"

  When the girls saw the tiny vegetables they began with cries of delightto cut them from their stalks with Henry's knife and a broken paringknife. They scrubbed them in the "washtub," filled the kettle half fullof water from the "well," and proceeded in great excitement to cut theraw meat into cubes. When this had been dropped into the kettle, Henrylighted the fire. It burned frantically, as if it were trying toencourage the stew to do its best. Violet laid the tin plate over thetop for a cover, and they all stood by to hear the first bubble. Soonthe savory stuff in the kettle began to boil in good earnest. Watch satdown gravely near it, and gave an approving sniff at intervals.

  "Keep it boiling," advised Henry as he departed again. "When I come hometonight I'll bring some salt. And for mercy's sake, don't get on fire."

  Violet pointed silently at the big teapot. The little girl had filled itwith water in case of emergency. "That's if Benny gets on fire," sheexplained--"or Watch."

  Henry laughed and went on his way happily enough. He wished he mightshare the delightful task of keeping the fire going and sniffing thestew, but when he found out his afternoon's duties, he changed his mindabruptly.

  "Think you can clean up this garage?" asked Dr. McAllister quizzicallywhen he appeared.

  Henry flashed a look around the place, and met the young man's eyes witha smile. It did need cleaning rather badly. When its owner purred out inhis high-powered little car, Henry drew a long breath and began inearnest. He opened all the chests of drawers to begin with. Then hearranged all the tools in the largest deep drawer, and with along-handled brush and a can of black paint that was nearly dry, helabeled the drawer TOOLS with neat lettering. Another drawer he letteredNAILS, and assorted its contents into a few of the many boxes that werelying around. He folded up the robes he found, swept off the shelves andarranged the oil cans in orderly ranks, sorted out innumerable pairs ofgloves, and then swept the floor. He washed the cement floor with thehose, and while waiting for it to dry he rinsed his brushes inturpentine.

  To tell the truth, Henry had found a few things in the rubbish which hehad stored in his own pocket. The treasure consisted in this case of aquantity of bent and rusty nails of all sizes, and a few screws andnuts.

  When Dr. McAllister returned at six o'clock he found Henry corking upthe turpentine and arranging the brushes on the shelf.

  "My word!" he exclaimed, staring at his garage with his mouth open. Thenhe threw back his head and laughed till his mother came down the walk tosee what the matter was.

  "Look at my gloves, Mother," he said, wiping his eyes. "All mated up.They never met each other before, that I remember."

  Mrs. McAllister looked the garage over, and observed the newly labeleddrawers. Her son opened one of them, and looked at his four hammers.

  "My tack hammer, Mother," he said, "your tack hammer, and two otherhammers! That last one I never expected to see again. If you can use it,you may have it, my boy."

  Now, it is no exaggeration to say that at that moment if Henry had beenasked what he wanted most of anything in the world he would haveanswered without any hesitation whatever, "A hammer."

  He accepted it gratefully, hardly able to stand still, so anxious was heto put it into use on the hill he called home.

  "Tomorrow's Sunday," said the doctor. "Shall I see you on Monday?"

  "Oh, yes," replied Henry, who had lost all track of the days.

  "The cherries need picking," said his new friend. "We could use anynumber of cherry pickers, if they were as careful as you." He gave himan odd look.

  "Could you?" asked Henry eagerly. "I'll surely come down."

  With that, he bade his friends good-by and started for home, richer byanother dollar, two doughnuts the cook had given him, a pocket full ofcrooked nails, and the rest of the vegetables.

  When h
e reached his freight-car home a delicious savor greeted him.

  "Onions!" he shouted, running up to the kettle. The cook stood by andtook off the cover and put in the salt. It was absolutely the mosttantalizing odor that Henry had ever smelled. Years afterward Jess triedto duplicate it with the same kettle, vegetables from the same gardenand all stirred with the same spoon, but it didn't equal this stew inflavor.

  "A ladle, as sure as I live!" gasped Henry. Jess had found a tin cup inthe dump, and fastened on a wooden handle with a bit of wire. And whenshe ladled out four portions on four plates of all sizes, some of themtin, and laid a spoon in each, the children felt that the world held nogreater riches. The tiny onions floated around like pearls; the carrotsmelted in your mouth; and the shreds of meat were as tender as possiblefrom long boiling. A bit of bread in one hand helped the feast alongwonderfully. The little wanderers ate until they could eat no more.

  "I have time before dark to make Benny's cart," observed Henry, biting acrisp, sweet carrot.

  "With my wheels?" asked Benny.

  "Yes, sir, with your wheels," agreed Henry. "Only, when it's done,you'll have to cart stones in it."

  "Sure," said Benny with satisfaction. "Cart stones or _anything_."

  "We'll need it in making the dam," explained Henry for the benefit ofhis sisters. "Tomorrow's Sunday, so I shan't work down in the town. Doyou think it's all right to build the pool on Sunday, Jess?"

  "I certainly do," replied Jess with emphasis. "We're just building thedam so we can keep clean. I guess if Sunday is your only day off, it'llbe all right."

  Henry's conscience was set at rest as he began with great delight tohammer out his bent nails. He and Benny ran about finding pieces of woodto fasten the wheels on. A visit to the dump was necessary at last, inorder to find just the right piece of timber for a tongue, but before itwas too dark to see, Henry had pounded the last nail in place andtrundled the flat cart back and forth just to see it go. The cart seemedvaluable enough to all of them to take into the house for the night. AndHenry could not afford to laugh at Benny for going to sleep with hishand upon one of his precious wheels, for he himself had tucked his newhammer under his pillow.