An inordinate fascination for railroads and trains

[michaelboy]

Years ago in grade school, my 3rd grade teacher read Gertrude Chandler Warner's "The Boxcar Children" to our class. I so loved how the book made me feel. If you've never heard of or read this book, it's about four orphaned siblings who discover a boxcar in the woods and, for a while, make it their home. The situation these kids found themselves in and how they handled their plight and all the wonderful ways they interacted and treated each other, fondly rests in me, decades later.


Then she saw something ahead of her in the woods. It was an old boxcar.
"What a good house that will be in the rain!" she thought.
She ran over to the boxcar. There was no engine, and the track was old and rusty. It was covered with grass and bushes because it had not been used for a long time.
"It is a boxcar," Jessie said. "We can get into it and stay until it stops raining."
She ran back as fast as she could to the other children. The sky was black, and the wind was blowing very hard.
"Hurry! Hurry!" cried Jessie. "I have found a good place! Hurry as fast as you can!"
Henry took Benny's hand, and they all ran through the woods after Jessie.
"It's beginning to rain!" cried Henry.
"We'll soon be there," Jessie shouted back. "It is not far. When we get there, you must help me open the door. It is heavy."
The stump of a big tree stood under the door of the boxcar and was just right for a step. Jessie and Henry jumped up on the old dead stump and rolled back the heavy door of the car. Henry looked in.
"There is nothing in here," he said. "Come, Benny. We'll help you up."
Violet went in next, and, last of all, Jessie and Henry climbed in.
They were just in time. How the wind did blow! They rolled the door shut, and then it really began to rain. Oh, how it did rain! It just rained and rained. The children could hear it on the top of the boxcar, but no rain came in.
"What a good place this is!" said Violet. "It is just like a warm little house with one room."
After awhile the rain and lightning and thunder stopped, and the wind did not blow so hard. Then Henry opened the door and looked out. All the children looked out into the woods. The sun was shining, but some water still fell from the trees. In front of the boxcar a pretty little brook ran over the rocks, with a waterfall in it.
"What a beautiful place!" said Violet.
"Henry!" cried Jessie. "Let's live here!"
"Live here?" asked Henry.
"Yes! Why not?" said Jessie. "This boxcar is a fine little house. It is dry and warm in the rain."
"We could wash in the brook," said Violet.
"Please, Henry," begged Jessie. "We could have the nicest little home here, and we could find some dishes, and make four beds and a table, and maybe chairs!"
"No," said Benny. "I don't want to live here, Jessie."
"Oh, dear, why not, Benny?" asked Jessie.
"I'm afraid the engine will come and take us away," answered Benny.
Henry and Jessie laughed. "Oh, no, Benny," said Henry. "The engine will never take this car away. It is an old, old car, and grass and bushes are growing all over the track."
"Then doesn't the engine use this track any more?" asked Benny.
"No, indeed," said Henry. He was beginning to want to live in the boxcar, too.
"We'll stay here today, anyway."

Comments

[wayfaringwordhack]

I will have to read this with my kiddos. I think they would love it based on this that you wrote: The situation these kids found themselves in and how they handled their plight and all the wonderful ways they interacted and treated each other, fondly rests in me, decades later.


These are the very things that they love in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books.

[michaelboy]

I believe they will enjoy it as it has some of the very same qualities of Swallows and Amazons

[serafaery]

It sounds like such a sweet little story, thank you for sharing it. I had all kinds of fantasies about living in some secret hideaway type place when I was a kid. I was fascinated with the lady on Little House on the Prairie who lived in some sort of underground dugout. My fantasies were always either a hole like that with a chimney or an elaborate bike trailer tent type thing that I could take anywhere I needed to go at any time. Me and my little dog. I still have an instinct to turn impossibly small, out of the way spaces into a home. Like an animal looking for a burrow. I guess I just never really felt safe. And still rarely do.

[michaelboy]

That lady Kezia was awesome! She had a pet raven and while many of the town's people thought she was crazy, she was a better soul than most.

I'll always hope you find feelings of safety and peace. After reading this, I admire you even more.