Down the Rabbit Hole by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Author:Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2013-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

Sunday, September 10, 1871

Saying Good-bye to the Pritchards

At long last, the train reached Chicago and continued slowly northward through the city. “She-caw-go! She-caw-go!” the conductor shouted. A thrill ran up my spine.

The train whistle sounded as we approached the LaSalle station. The train rumbled across a series of switches. Its brakes squealed and it ground to a halt. The boilers hissed and exhaled. Their great breath drifted past the train windows.

The conductor rushed to set the steps in place. My face felt pulled down as passengers scanned the crowd for loved ones. Gideon and I had no one to welcome us, and now we had to bid good-bye to Gwen and her little ones. I felt homesick for the Pritchards already.

How is it that you can know someone for only three days and yet feel as though you’ve known them a lifetime? Some might say that near tragedy brought us closer, but that’s not the reason, or else I would feel just as close to the Duggans.

Mother said this happens when our spirit connects with another person’s spirit. Perhaps the two spirits recognize one another from a different time and place.

As I waited for the doors to open, a deep sadness coursed through me, sweeping me down a river I didn’t want to sail. I swallowed hard and lifted Sallie onto my hip and clutched Lucy’s hand.

Gwen’s feet had barely touched the platform when a man with red hair and stylish goatee and wearing a tailored frock coat and narrow tie pushed through the crowd, calling, “Gwen! Gwen!”

“Papa!” Lucy and Adam sang out and threw themselves at his legs.

Sallie whipped her little head around and tried to leap out of my arms.

Did Mr. Peter Pritchard care that Gwen stood in the middle of a crowded platform? That women wearing fancy dresses and hats twittered like scolding birds?

“Avert your eyes,” he told the children.

Lucy and Adam giggled and covered their eyes but peeked through outspread fingers as their father scooped up their mother and whirled her around twice. Her dress sailed out like a bell and he kissed her the whole while in a way that made me blush and grow warm inside and think about Rabbit.

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