Tuesday at Breakfast, M asked me why Mrs Lapham was so mean to Johnny once he couldn’t work anymore. And why the master smith she was trying to get to marry one of her girls threatened to lock up Cilla so she couldn’t give testimony on his behalf. And how come Grandpa Lapham was so lazy, I thought he was religious? (And I thought, wouldn’t a truly pious man have a work ethic, provide for his family, and speak up for the innocent?) Any why was Johnny so unpleasant, “I don’t like him Mom, but I want to find out what happens to him next.”
And I smirked to myself – yes M, this is why I read you literature, so you ask questions about people, even people you don’t like. Maybe especially people you don’t like.
When I read the introduction, I learned that Esther Forbes had such extreme dyslexia, that no two words were spelled the same, and she didn’t use any punctuation, only dashes. That made me grin. If I’d told that to my Dad when I was a kid, he’d have said, “Good for her, but don’t get any ideas.”