Runaway Alice (A Nickel for Alice) PDF
Preview Runaway Alice (A Nickel for Alice)
A fl 1 {A Nickel for Alice) 1 'IIM11n1111111111111111111111111 111111111•11111111111111111111111111111 {A Nickel for Alice)] By FRANCES SALOMON IHURPHY Cover by George Withers Illustrated by Mabel Jones Woodbury SCHOLASTIC \^IbjM BOOK SERVICES Published by Scholastic Book Services, a division of Scholastic Magazines, Inc., New York, N.Y. To My Father and Mother andto Marguerite, Noel, Eleanor, and Richard who shared my fortunate childhood This book Is sold subject to th» condition that ft shall not be re- sold, lent, or otherwise circula—ted in any binding or cover other than that in which it is published un—less prior written permission ha« been obtained from the publisher and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Copyright 1951 by Frances Salomon Murphy. This edition b published by Scholastic Book Services, a division of Scholastic Magazinec, Inc., by arrangement with Thomas Y. Crowell Company. 7th printing February 1967 Printed in the U.SX CHAPTER 1 THE oflBce at the State Home and School was quiet and pleasant. It was a sunny room with plants on the window sills and on the desk. The only sound Ahce heard was the rustling of papers as Miss Cannon, the social worker, looked through her folder. She glanced up from the letters and smiled at Ahce, who sat stiffly on a straight chair, looking down at her new black shoes. Ahce also wore a new blue cotton dress with a white collar and new white socks. Beside her chair was a cardboard box and in the box. Miss Cannon knew, were two cotton dresses, one set of imderwear, two pairs of socks, two nightgowns, a sweater, a pair of rubbers, a comb, and a toothbrush, all new. Every girl placed in a foster home from the State Home and School carried with her the same cloth- ing in an identical cardboard box. "Well, Alice,'' the young woman said, *Tm going in to see Dr. Wagner now. I'll be with you very shortly and we'll go to your new foster home." Alice Wright lifted her gray eyes and looked at Miss Cannon but she did not say a word. She was about twelve years old, a thin child with straight, light brown hair which was fastened at one side widi a barrette and was cut just below her ears. Alice did not answer Miss Cannon. She did not an- swer because she could not. She was trying hard to be 1 calm. She was determined not to show how she really felt. She would not let anyone see that she was terri- fied, that the words "foster home" alarmed her. She began to study her new shoes again, and Miss Cannon went into Dr. Wagner's oflBce. In the superintendent's oflBce, Dr. Wagner sat study- ing some papers. He was a middle-aged man with kind brown eyes and a worried expression on his thin face. "Miss Cannon," he said, "I am not at all sure that Ahce Wright ought to be placed just at this time. She is an intelligent girl; she is quiet and obedient and we have no trouble with her—if we keep our eyes on her. But you know what her trouble is—she runs away. She comes back meekly when we go for her, but it is a very bad thing for a child her age to run away. No teUing what might happen to her." "You say she always runs to the same place," began Miss Cannon. "Yes, here's the address. Mrs. John Baker, 210 Black- well Street. It's in a miserable section of the city, the second floor of a shabby old house. Alice was boarded there by her father for six years after the death of her mother, so it's the only home she remembers. Still it is hard to understand why she goes back there. Mrs. Baker makes it plain that she doesn't want her. She has five children of her own, is a nervous, overworked woman who screams at them most of the time. Her house is dirty and the children aren't kept too clean. Mrs. Baker calls us as soon as AUce arrives and de- mands that we take her back immediately. Of course, we go there now as soon as she is reported missing." 2 "Apparently Mrs. Baker was only interested in the money Alice's father sent," said Miss Cannon. "That's all," Dr. Wagner answered. "When her father left Ahce there, Mrs. Baker had only two children and I suppose conditions were better. He found Work in another city and could seldom visit Ahce, though he did send money regularly, and he always remembered her at Christmas time and her birthday." "He meant to take care of her, I suppose." Miss Cannon looked at some papers she had brought with her. "According to the pohce report, her father had just remarried, a yoimg woman with a four-year-old boy of her own, and he had written Mrs. Baker that they were coming for Alice to take her home with them. On the way, they were in that dreadful automo- bile accident and were both killed." "Yes," said Dr. Wagner soberly. "Mrs. Baker couldn't get rid of Alice fast enough and she was committed to the care of the state. And the httle boy, Charhe— he had been left with a neighbor—was committed too. He's a nice httle fellow." Miss Cannon had a speculative look in her eyes. "Perhaps, later, I can place him with Alice." Dr. Wagner laughed. "I wouldn't plan on that. Miss Cannon. Alice's housemother felt sorry for her, all alone as she is and not even a visitor to see her once in a while. She suggested that Alice go over to Charlie's cottage and visit him, but Alice said, *No, I won't go. He's not my brother.* And, of course, he isn't actually her brother, but it seemed as though she would wel- come almost anyone in order to have a family." "Perhaps," said Miss Cannon, "she's had too much 3 family life with the Bakers. She may think that all fam- iUes are like that." "Then why does she go back there?" asked Dr. Wag- ner. "That's why Tm not sure about placing AHce. The State Home is no jail, the children here are good children on the whole, and are here through no fault of their own. We try to make a home for them here until they go to foster homes. Still, we do give them closer supervision than they would have in a home. They are kept in groups with an adult and they don't leave the grounds without permission. When Alice goes out to play alone and off to school, Tm afraid she'll have many opportunities to run away." Miss Cannon gathered up her papers. She stood up. "We'll have to take that chance. She is much too good a child to be kept in an institution. It may be that she's looking for a real home without knowing it. I hope I have the right one for her. And now I'll pick up my child outside and we'll be off. Good-by, Doctor." CHAPTER 2 AS THE doof to the superintendent's" oflBce /^ opened and Miss Cannon came out, Alice's thin /" m shoulders straightened even more and she drew her two new shoes back under her chair. She heard a clear voice saying, "Shall we be going, Alice?" When she looked up she saw again the yoimg woman with blue eyes and Hght hair, and a smile that was even more warm and friendly. Alice picked up her box and followed without a backward glance. Only when they were in the car with the state seal on the door Miss Cannon spoke again. "Ill tell you about your new home as we drive there. It's in the city but in a different part of the city from Mrs. Baker's. There are three people in the family, Mr. and Mrs. Jordan and their daughter, Marilyn, who is ten years old. The Jordans want someone to be a friend to their child. They are nice people." Ahce spoke for the first time. "How do you know?" Miss Cannon gave her a quick sidewise glance and then answered, "I don't absolutely know, AUce, but I have every reason to beheve it's a good home. You see, before we use a home, we get the names of six people as references. One has to be a clergyman, one a doctor, and four are friends of the family. If any one of these six people doesn't approve of the home, then we don't use it. Of course, I visit the home my- self. I go through the house and I talk to the foster mother. If I don't like the home, then I don't use it." 5 "Oh," said Alice, but she still felt uneasy. "You must not think," went on Miss Cannon, "that I am just leaving you in this home. You11 see a great deal of me. I shall visit you often at home and I shall see you at school, too. Til take you to the dentist and to the doctor's every so often. And Ahce, I want you always to tell me if you're not happy. You are my chief interest, not the Jordans. I want you to be happy." "Am I going to a regular school?" asked AUce. "Yes, you are. There is just one thing I wish you would promise. Please don't go to Mrs. Baker's." Alice set her mouth stubbornly and said nothing. "Why do you go there?" Miss Cannon asked her. "Do you like Mrs. Baker so much?" "I don't like her at all," Alice replied, "and she doesn't like me. She says I am too much work because I like to comb my hair and wear clean dresses." "Then why do you go there?" Miss Cannon persisted. "I don't know," Alice said helplessly. "I don't have anywhere else to go." The car stopped before a small house, painted white with green blinds. There was a low picket fence around the neat httle yard and there were pansies planted in a bed in the center of the yard. Ahce and Miss Cannon were met at the door by a girl with red curls, freckles, and blue eyes. She was chubby but she was pretty. Mrs. Jordan was plump too, and like her daughter she was pretty. Her eyes and hair were brown and she wore a spotless, stiffly starched and very nice print house dress. "Come in, Miss Cannon," said Mrs. Jordan. "So this is Ahce. You wouldn't think she was two years older than Marilyn, would you, they are so near the same 6
The list of books you might like
