The Boxcar Children Beginning: The Aldens of Fair Meadow Farm by Patricia MacLachlan Read Free Book Online Page A

Violet and Benny. “Only one bag. And we’ll have to carry it.”
    “Remember William and Meg,” said Henry.
    “I’ll take my sewing bag—the little screwdriver Jake gave me,” said Violet. “And the spool of brown thread,” she added in a soft voice. She looked at her Mama’s chipped cup on the windowsill.
    “I can’t take that,” she whispered.
    “You can if you can carry it,” said Henry. He smoothed her hair.
    He watched Violet wrap the mended cup in a shirt and put it in her bag.
    “I’ll carry the bag of clothes and food,” he said.
    “We have the bread, some cheese, and fruit,” said Jessie. “Belle left biscuits and cookies.”
    “May I take Bear?” asked Benny.
    “Yes,” said Jessie.
    Benny smiled and Jessie smiled, too.
    “Bear will like the venture,” said Benny.

    “Adventure,” corrected Violet.
    “Then let’s clean up and go,” said Henry.
    Benny ran into the bedroom and came back with a paper. It was a drawing of four children, from tall to little.
    “I promised Belle,” he said, putting it on the table.
    “That is us,” Benny added with a smile.
    Jessie put her arm around Benny.
    “It is us,” she said, her voice soft.
    Henry looked at the turn-around globe sitting in the middle of the kitchen table.
    “Do you know which way we’re going?” asked Jessie.
    Henry nodded.
    “We’ll go back roads away from town so nobody we know sees us.”
    Violet pointed at a spot on the globe.
    “That’s where Sarah and Jake live,” she said.
    “And William and Meg. And Joe,” said Benny. “Could we go there?”
    “Maybe. It’s a longer journey than it looks, Benny,” said Henry. “But we will be together, the four of us, no matter what. We’ll take care of each other. And maybe one day we’ll visit them.”
    “Get the money in the cookie jar,” said Jessie, “and Jake and Sarah’s address, so we have it,” she whispered.
    “Now.” Henry looked around the room. “Pick up what you’re taking. And we will begin our …”
    “Adventure!” said Benny.
    They went out the door and up through the yard.
    “Good-bye, Betty! Good-bye, Boots!” said Benny.
    Boots didn’t look up, but Betty watched them as they walked across the yard and up to the road in sunlight.
    They walked past the sign that said Fair Meadow Farm and down the road, Henry and Jessie in front, Violet and Benny behind them. Four lambs.
    They walked quietly until soon the Alden farm was out of sight. After a while they passed houses and meadows and streams they had never seen before.
    When Jessie looked back she saw that Violet and Benny were holding hands.
    Jessie looked sideways at Henry. Then she reached out and took Henry’s hand to let him know, in her own quiet way, that it was all right that tears came down his face.

    Henry squeezed her hand.
    The four lambs were on their way.

AFTERWORD
Setting the Scene
    It was a pleasure to write what I call the “beginning before the beginning” of the Boxcar Children stories by Gertrude Chandler Warner.
    I love these children—Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden. To be able to comfort one another and share the adventure of making a home in a boxcar has long been exciting for many child readers.
    They are independent, intelligent, inventive, kind, and caring toward each other—the true qualities that make their little family work. I admire the strengths and bravery that they developed from being all on their own.
    I tried to show these qualities in the Aldens as they lived their peaceful, full life in the months before they set off on their journey.
    Before I began writing the book, I visited Gertrude Chandler Warner’s hometown of Putnam, Connecticut, where she lived her whole life. The Boxcar Children Museum is there, too, alongside the train tracks, inside a real boxcar! I learned much about how a boxcar feels and looks and what it would have been like for the children to live there. I hope all readers visit the museum, either online or in