The Boxcar Children

“‘We have a grandfather in Greenfield, but we don’t like him,’ said Benny. Jessie put her hand over the little boy’s mouth before he could say more.”

Benny is too young to know better than to blurt out information about himself and his siblings to strangers, but Jessie knows. She and her older brother Henry are very smart and understand that their situation is dangerous. Jessie is good at managing her younger brother, but no one can do so perfectly, especially with a five-year-old who’s filled with energy and enthusiasm.

“[…] Jessie said, ‘I think we could go faster if we woke him up now. We could take his hands and help him along.’ Henry stopped and put Benny down. ‘Come, Benny,’ he said. ‘You must wake up and walk now.’ ‘Go away!’ said Benny. ‘Let me try,’ said Violet. ‘Now, Benny, you can play that you are a little brown bear and are running away to find a nice warm bed. Henry and Jessie will help you, and we’ll find a bed.’ Benny liked being a little brown bear, and so he woke up and opened his eyes. Henry and Jessie took his hands, and they all went on again.”

Violet shows her ability to calm cranky people. She understands her little brother and makes for him a game out of waking and walking. The kids work closely together to make a new life for themselves. They have a knack for coordinating their efforts to overcome obstacles.

“She walked a little way into the woods, looking for a place to go out of the rain. ‘Where shall we go?’ she thought again. 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.”

This is an important moment in the plot when Jessie finds what will become their new home. It also highlights her dedication to her siblings, her resourcefulness, and her smarts. It’s not just Jessie, though: All four children are devoted to one another. A theme of the story is how hard they all work to protect and help each other.

“‘Violet,’ ordered Jessie, ‘please wet my handkerchief in the brook.’”

Jessie clearly is in charge of her younger sister and brother, but she’s polite about it, saying please when most people would simply tell a junior person to do something. She treats them with respect, as do all the kids toward each other. This helps them to be a tight-knit group.

“‘This side is the bedroom,’ said Jessie. ‘What will the other side be?’ asked Benny, ‘The other side?’ asked Jessie. ‘Let me think. I guess that will be the sitting-room, and maybe some of the time it will be the kitchen.’”

Jessie encourages the others by imagining how the boxcar’s interior will soon look. It’s her way of telling them that this is their new home and that it will be a good one.

“‘I must look in the refrigerator,’ she said with a laugh. It was a funny refrigerator. There was a rock behind the waterfall, and the night before Jessie had put the two bottles of milk in a hole in this rock. Now she took out the bottles and found that the milk was very cold.”

One of the hallmarks of the Boxcar Children is their resourcefulness. For each problem, they figure out a solution. Jessie is fairly advanced at this: To keep the milk fresh during a warm summer night, she reasons that the nearby brook’s small waterfall will cool the air behind it. Indeed, the bottle is chilly the next morning.

“‘What’s a dump?’ asked Benny. ‘Oh, Benny!’ said Violet. ‘You know what a dump is. Old tin cans and old dishes and bottles.’ ‘Are old tin cans and dishes treasures?’ Benny wanted to know. ‘They will be treasures for us,’ answered Jessie, laughing.”

Jessie takes their situation in good humor. Foraging in a trash dump would feel shameful to many, but they need kitchenware and, with almost no money, they must find what they can, where they can find it. To Benny and Violet, she makes the trip to the dump a journey to find wonders.

“‘I bought another loaf of brown bread at the store,’ said Henry, ‘and some more milk. Then I bought some dried meat, because we can eat it in our hands. And I bought a bone for Watch.’”

Like Jessie, Henry thinks things through. He plans ahead, imagining what his family needs and how they’ll want to use it. He’s thorough and even remembers their new dog’s needs.

“With dried meat, bread and butter, milk, and cookies, the children could not ask for a better supper.”

Where some orphaned children might go hungry, the Boxcar Children already eat well. It’s a simple meal, but compared to having nothing, it’s delicious. The kids work together, each doing different jobs until their little home has enough resources for all of them.

“‘What shall I do with the vegetables I pulled up?’ Henry asked. ‘Oh, I don’t want them,’ said Mrs. Moore. ‘Just leave them in a pile.’ ‘Do you mind if I take them?’ asked Henry. ‘No, indeed. Do you have chickens?’ Then, without waiting for an answer, she went right on, ‘You have done good work. Here is a dollar.’ Henry said, ‘Thank you,’ and was glad he did not have to answer about the chickens.”

Mrs. Moore assumes Henry lives nearby in a house or farm with poultry in the backyard, and she guesses he wants the vegetables for them. When Henry stands there awkwardly, saying nothing, she realizes his situation might be much less happy and that he needs to scrounge food to feed himself and perhaps others. She gives him a dollar for the morning’s work—in today’s money, it’s worth about $20—which will help him buy food. With the pile of veggies, it’s a decent morning’s earnings for a 14-year-old. Henry is anxious to return to the boxcar with food for himself, his brother, and sisters—the other “chickens.”

“Henry found a lot of nails that were bent and covered with rust. He put them in his pocket. ‘I’ll ask the doctor for these bent nails,’ he said to himself. ‘They are no good to him, but they are fine for me. I can use every old nail I get.’”

Not only is Henry honest to a fault—he intends to ask permission to take bent nails that Dr. Moore would throw out—but he’s thinking way ahead, already planning the things he’ll want to build to improve the lives of his fellow orphans.

“It was hard work building the dam, but the children liked hard work.”

The kids are a tight group and love sharing big projects. The dam will make a deep pool in the brook for swimming and bathing. It also is part of their ongoing task of building their family and keeping it happy and safe.

“Everyone in the orchard liked Benny. The doctor laughed delightedly at him, and sweet Mrs. Moore fell in love with him at once.”

Full of energy, plain-talking, friendly, and funny, little Benny wins everyone’s hearts. He shows the surprising wisdom of a small child, and his character serves as comic relief, making the perils the children must face less frightening.

“At noon Dr. Moore came home. ‘You must stay to dinner,’ he said to the children. ‘We can eat here in the orchard under the trees. Will your mother be watching for you?’ When he asked this, he looked at Henry in a queer way. Henry did not know what to say. But at last Jessie said, ‘No. Our mother and father are dead.’ ‘Then you must stay,’ said Mrs. Moore.”

The doctor and his mother want to help but don’t want to say or do anything that might make the children run away. He knows they’re living alone, and, with his question about their mother, Dr. Moore wants to learn why. Fearing the doctor might disapprove of their situation and fire him, Henry feels trapped by the question. Jessie protects him by answering plainly, and the adults are wise enough not to pressure them further. Instead, they offer hospitality that will at least give the children a good meal.

“Dr. Moore sat up. ‘Five thousand dollars!’ he said. ‘James Henry Alden! Oh, my! Oh, my!’ He sat still for a long time, thinking and laughing to himself. ‘The four children are living in a boxcar, but I shall not tell Mr. Alden that they are his grandchildren,’ he said.”

The doctor realizes that Henry and the other kids are Mr. Alden’s grandchildren. He knows they’re doing well living in their boxcar, but he doesn’t yet know why they haven’t reached out to their grandfather. Concerned only for their welfare, Dr. Moore wisely decides to wait until he understands the situation better before blabbing about them to Mr. Alden.

“At last Henry got away from the people and started back to Dr. Moore’s. He had the twenty-five-dollar prize in his pocket. When Dr. Moore came home and found Henry cutting the grass, he laughed quietly to himself.”

Dr. Moore is impressed with Henry’s hard, capable work and his honesty and humility. Where most boys who win the big race of the day would bask in the victory for hours, Henry quickly returns to the Moores to finish his work there. He’s not full of himself but filled instead with concern for his siblings. Henry deserves all the support Dr. Moore can give him.

“Dr. Moore did not tell Henry that he had been up in the bleachers. He let Henry tell him about the races. ‘And who won the free-for-all?’ he asked. ‘I did,’ said Henry. ‘You did?’ cried Dr. Moore. ‘Good for you! What are you going to do with the money?’ ‘I’ll give it to Jessie,’ answered Henry. ‘Good,’ said the doctor again.”

Henry continues to impress Dr. Moore with his selfless concern for his brother and sisters. A boy this capable who’s also dedicated to helping his family will go far. Dr. Moore wants to redouble his efforts to protect these kids. 

“[Jessie] carefully washed Benny’s old stockings and hung them up to dry. That afternoon she and Violet sat down, with the workbag between them, to make a bear for Benny. ‘You must make a tail, too, Jessie,’ begged Benny, watching her put on the arms and legs and head. ‘Bears don’t have tails,’ said Jessie. ‘Your old bear didn’t have a tail.’ ‘But this bear must have a tail,’ replied Benny, knowing that Jessie would put on two tails if he asked her to. ‘What kind of tail?’ asked Jessie at last. ‘Long and thin,’ said Benny happily, ‘so I can pull it.’ ‘Benny!’ cried Jessie, laughing. But she made a tail, long and thin, just as Benny had ordered.”

Little Benny is playful and smart, and he knows his big sister well enough to convince her to do things that are a bit silly. Their banter hints at a larger truth: they all love each other very much and would do anything to help one another. This helps make them a strong team and a happy one.

“‘Where is the doctor?’ asked the man, crossly. ‘He is up in Violet’s room,’ answered Benny. ‘This means five thousand dollars to him if he will come down,’ said the man. ‘Oh, he can’t come now,’ said Benny. ‘What do you mean, boy?’ asked the man. ‘What is he doing?’ ‘He’s taking care of my sister Violet,’ said Benny. ‘She is sick.’ ‘And you mean he wouldn’t leave her even if I gave him five thousand dollars?’ asked the man. ‘Yes,’ answered Benny. ‘That’s what I mean.’”

The man is Mr. Alden, the children’s grandfather. He’s rich and powerful and can become impatient if he doesn’t get what he wants. He offers $5,000 to anyone who can help him locate his missing grandchildren—today, that would be worth about $100,000—yet Dr. Moore refuses to leave Violet. Mr. Alden must wait, knowing that, to the doctor, the children are worth more than money. He realizes his grandkids are in good hands, and he bows to Dr. Moore’s wishes in the matter.

“‘I’m afraid they won’t want to go with you,’ said Mrs. Moore, ‘until they learn to like you. And they won’t want to go while Violet is so sick.’ ‘Can’t I see them?’ begged Mr. Alden. ‘I won’t tell them who I am.’ ‘That would help,’ agreed the doctor. ‘If they grow to like you before they know who you are, things will be easier.’”

Mr. Alden, who’s used to getting his way, bows to the Moores’ wisdom in the matter of his grandchildren. Together, they devise a plan that will help the children learn that their grandfather isn’t a bad person but loves them and wants to protect and care for them. The story creates the sense that Mr. Alden can be gruff and bossy—he’s a wealthy company owner—but that his best self comes out when he’s with his grandkids. The Moores know and encourage that side of his personality.

“When Mary learned that she was to cook for Mr. Alden, she was frightened. ‘How can I cook for him?’ she cried. ‘He has everything. He is a very rich man.’ ‘You can cook for anyone,’ said Dr. Moore, kindly. ‘Just get one of your good chicken dinners and make some cherry dumplings.’”

The cook’s fear of Mr. Alden suggests that the man is somewhat like a local lord of the manor. His mills lie between two towns, and it’s likely that many, if not most, of the residents, work for him. He can have anything he wants, and Mary is right to be nervous. Dr. Moore, on principle, is willing to stand up to Mr. Alden, especially if the tycoon tries to push his grandchildren too quickly into living with him.

“‘Don’t be afraid,’ said the young lady. ‘You may keep the dog. I can change to another one.’ ‘Oh, thank you! You are nice!’ cried Benny. He ran to the lady and climbed up in her lap before anyone could stop him. ‘I’d like to keep you, Benny, in place of the dog,’ laughed the lady, putting her arms around him.”

The Boxcar Children, and especially Benny, have a way with strangers. They turn uncertain ones into supporters and nice ones into generous people. The children don’t do this on purpose—they don’t realize how charming they are—and their innocent goodness tugs at everyone’s heartstrings. The young woman, who herself wants to care for others and begins with a pet dog, finds in the warm and affectionate Benny a reminder that she would love to have children of her own.

“Would you ever think that four children could be homesick in such a beautiful house? Jessie was the first one to wish for the old boxcar. One day she said. ‘Oh, Grandfather, I’d like to cook something once more in the dear old kettle in the woods.’ ‘Go out in the kitchen, my dear,’ said her grandfather. ‘The maids will help you. You can cook all you want to.’ Jessie liked this, but it was not like the old days in the boxcar. Then one day Benny said, ‘Grandfather, I wish I could drink my milk out of my dear old pink cup.’ His grandfather began to think. He had some pink cups, but they were not so dear to Benny as his old cracked one. At last Mr. Alden said, ‘I am going to give you children a surprise.’”

The boxcar protected the children and provided them a home in the woods. There, they had many adventures and learned how to care for themselves. They miss the car, which has become an old friend. Their grandfather doesn’t want them running off again to live in the woods, so he works up the perfect solution: He’ll bring the car to his house, where the kids can enjoy it all they want.