Chapter Five

The Orphan Train Arrives

The next hour wasn’t enjoyed by everyone. The older boys and girls helped scrub the younger ones. Hair was washed and brushed, and new clothes were put on.

“Matron, I’m not going to have no skin left if Riley don’t let up,” Pete complained. “Them’s freckles he’s trying to rub off.”

“Mr. Glover, young Billy’s curling his toes up, and I can’t get his shoes on,” Philip complained.

Young Billy was only three and had been new to Briarlane. But when Bert and Ethan’s friend Billy, who was the same age as them, had chosen not to go on the train, it had seemed fitting to all that young Billy would take his place.

Shala scolded Alice. “Now see what you did to your sash! I tied it just perfect, and you had to turn it around to look at it!”

Finally, however, everyone was neatly dressed and combed, and Charles Glover looked them over with satisfaction. “As nice looking a bunch of children as I’ve ever had,” he declared. “We’ll be proud to show them to the people in Liberty.”

Fortunately, the town of Liberty wasn’t far away. The train began to slow, and as many faces as possible pressed against the windows. Everyone wanted to be first to catch a glimpse of the station. The children spoke together in whispers.

“You’re allowed to talk out loud, you know,” Charles said. “We want these folks to think they’ll be getting real children. You can always hear that kind.”

“We’ve been hearing them for several days,” Matron added with a roll of her eyes. “I’ll tell the folks how real they are.”

“We’re scared, miss.” A little Chicago boy turned from the window. “I weren’t never scared on the streets, but I am now. What are we going to do with all that space?” he pleaded. “There’s nothin’ to hide behind.”

“What’s there to hide from?” Philip wanted to know. “Is someone after you?”

Arthur looked at Philip kindly. “If you was safe in an orphanage every night, you wouldn’t know it. We lived on the street and slept in doorways at night, mostly. There was lots of things to hide from there.”

The Briarlane children regarded Arthur with awe. He slept in doorways in that big, noisy city?

“What did you eat?” Bert asked.

“Anything we could find. Lots of restaurants threw things out in the alley, and we picked food up. Sometimes we snitched fruit from the stands.”

“You mean you took it when they weren’t looking?”

Mouths of the Briarlane children hung agape.

Arthur hedged, as if realizing this wasn’t a good thing to talk about. “Well, sometimes the owners would give us what was left over at the end of the day. We didn’t snitch a whole lot.”

“The folks at Hull-House were good to us,” Trudy put in. “They took in all the kids they could there. Nobody else ever gave us brand-new clothes before.”

“That’s why we believed ’em when they said we’d get new homes out here, and people would want us,” Nell added.

“We’re going to see who wants us this time,” Shala declared as the train lurched to a stop.

The children turned again to the windows and gazed at the crowd that lined the platform. There were farmers in overalls and straw hats, and businessmen in fine suits. Women in sunbonnets and apron-covered cotton dresses mingled with ladies wearing the latest fashions in gowns and feathered and beribboned hats.

“Stay right here until I come back for you,” Charles Glover instructed. “I’ll make arrangements with the townsfolk and find out where we’re to go.”

“Do you see someone you’d like to go home with?” Alice whispered to Betsy.

“There’s a lady who’s smiling and waving,” Betsy said. “She looks nice. But I think I’d rather stay with you. I’d like us to go to the same town.”

Alice nodded. “I’d like all of us to go to the same place. Even Philip.”

“Philip always teases you. Why would you want him?”

“’Cause I know him,” Alice replied. “I feel better with people I know, even if I don’t like them very much.”

Betsy seemed to understand this, and the girls continued to watch the people outside.

At another window, Ethan and Bert were doing the same.

“They’re going at this backwards,” Bert observed. “Us kids need to pick the ma and pa we’d like ’stead of them picking us. I can tell from here that he doesn’t like boys.” Bert pointed toward a tall, thin man dressed in a black suit, a white shirt, and a string tie.

Ethan studied the man. “How do you know that?” he asked finally. “He looks all right to me.”

“He’s standing too quiet. And he’s not talking to nobody. He looks like he was here to pick up a load of furniture. A chair won’t talk back to him, but a boy will. He won’t like that.”

Ethan surveyed the crowd on the platform. It was true that most everyone was chatting with a neighbor or walking back and forth past the windows. They seemed excited and interested. Ethan looked back at the tall, unsmiling man standing alone.

“He doesn’t look very happy, does he? Maybe he wants a child to cheer him up. Maybe living alone makes you look like that.”

“It’d take a carload of kids to cheer him up,” Bert emphasized. “I don’t want to be one of ’em.”

“Pretend you could have anyone out there you wanted for your folks,” Ethan said. “Who would you pick?”

Bert looked carefully, then sighed. “They ain’t out there. My ma had soft, curly hair around her face. Theirs is all pulled back tight. My pa would be dancin’ a jig to make folks laugh. I don’t see ’em.”

“You mean you’re looking for your real folks?” Ethan stared at Bert. “You know they never lived in Iowa!”

Bert grinned sheepishly. “Naw, I ain’t looking for ’em really. I’d just like new ones that looked like ’em. That way, see, I wouldn’t have to get used to two different sets when my pa and ma do come back. ’Cause I’ll find ’em when I’m sixteen and can go looking. Just wait and see.”

Ethan had the feeling that even Bert didn’t believe that, but he knew his friend wanted to, so he didn’t argue. Instead he broke into a huge smile. “Sure you will, Bert. Maybe I’ll even be able to help you look.”

“Mr. Glover’s coming back,” someone said. “Are we going now?”

Simon climbed up on the seat, where Ethan stood at the window. “She’s here too,” he announced.

“Who’s here, Simon?”

“That little bitty lady I didn’t smack in the nose.”

Ethan opened his mouth to tell Simon not to be ridiculous, but he had no chance.

Mr. Glover was speaking. “We’re ready, children. Small ones with Matron; the rest line up by size and follow me. The people want to see you.”

New shoes squeaked down the train aisle and descended the big metal steps. The crowd parted to make way for this unusual parade, and it seemed like hundreds of eyes followed as they headed toward the church a short distance away.