(Concluding) Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Chapter 13 and 14

Chapter 13      Rip Van Winkle

Naturally, the girls are very excited on the day of the performance for their stage debut.  The trio walks to Winona’s house and Mr. Root drives them downtown in his cutter.   Tib made daily visits to the Melborn Hotel to be coached by Mrs. Poppy (how does she know the part so well?) and since then has been rehearsing with the cast.  Surprisingly, Tib is not a “quick study” but once she learns something she is completely confident without no stage fright.   The girls are told they will cling to the coat-tails of the actor playing Rip.

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Chapter 12

Three phone calls take over the Ray household in this chapter!   First, Jerry who does not spend enough time at Cox Military to justify all that private school tuition, calls Julia to tell her a play of Rip Van Winkle is coming to town and he would like to take her.   Mrs. Ray gives permission, having seen a production herself once.   Betsy, not wanting to be left out, says she should go ask Winona immediately if she can get comps again.  Mrs. Ray starts telling everyone the Rip Van Winkle story and I am sure I am not alone in wishing it were something more fun like Peter Pan or Gilbert & Sullivan.  However, it is 1905 and most of our favorites haven’t been written yet!   Next, Winona calls, having also heard the news, and invites Betsy, Tacy and Tib to go with.   Betsy rushes across the street to tell Tacy, and they both run to Tib’s to tell her, and then all three rush to Winona’s because they are so excited.  It makes one wish all one's friends lived nearby!

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Chapter 11

Chapter 11, Mrs. Poppy’s Party

Preparing for Christmas is big in the Ray household and there are many secrets in the mix.  Everyone is waiting to see Margaret’s face when she gets a talking doll on Christmas morning.  In addition to her new English bob, she has big eyes in a serious face.  The long black lashes seemed not so much to shade them as to make them bigger and brighter (foreshadowing!).  The Rays trim the tree on Christmas Eve just like my family.   Betsy hangs her new red ball.  They add strings of popcorn and cranberries.  Finally, the candles are lighted.  Bits of live flame danced all over the tree, and it’s a Christmas miracle that the house doesn’t burn down.  They read Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

The next day there are stockings and gifts and the first appearance of joke presents.  Betsy got one of her own much-chewed pencils “With Sympathy from William Shakespeare.”  Betsy receives a copy of Little Men.  It is a happy day, and there is no post-Christmas letdown because the following day is Mrs. Poppy’s party.

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Chapter 10

Chapter 10, Christmas Shopping

Wondering about her story, Flossie’s Accident (which I keep wanting to call Flossie’s Head – I think that must be how it has been colloquially discussed over the years), Betsy asks her father how long it takes a letter to go to Philadelphia.   He says two or three days.   Except that Betsy waits and waits and The Ladies Home Journal does not send her $100.  Julia is curious about who Betsy knows in Philadelphia.  As an older sister, I know that feeling of wondering what on earth your sibling is up to now!

“The King of Spain maybe,” said her father.  He was teasing.  For when Betsy, Tacy and Tib were only ten years old and didn’t know any better, they had written a letter to the King of Spain.  They had received an answer, too.

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Chapters 8 and 9

Chapter 8, Mrs. Poppy

Betsy is thoroughly enjoying her adventure at the Melborn Hotel, as is her rescuer, Mrs. Poppy, who telephones Mr. Ray for permission so Betsy can stay.  “There’s time for a real party,” she tells Betsy and asks if she would like to take the elevator or the stairs.  Betsy hesitates although not for my usual reason of a reproachful faux-Fitbit.   She has never ridden in an elevator but the grand staircase of the Melborn Hotel is very impressive!  “The stairs,” she said.  “And the elevator coming down.”  They pass a statue of the Winged Victory as they ascend.  Headless.  Mrs. Poppy explains that it is Greek.   Betsy takes it in stride, feeling well prepared by her Greek mythology reading earlier in the day.

 

At the top of the stairs is the hotel’s two-story dining room, overlooking the river.  This is where Deep Valley’s elegant dances with orchestras take place (foreshadowing!).  Mrs. Poppy asks a maid for hot chocolate but they continue to her private apartment which has parlor, den, bedroom and bathroom but no kitchen or dining room as the Poppys dine in the hotel dining room or have food delivered.    Betsy notices a small rocking chair with a doll in it.  When she asks if the doll belonged to Mrs. Poppy as a child, Mrs. Poppy tells Betsy it belonged to her daughter who died.  Betsy feels sad but doesn’t know how to respond.  Mrs. Poppy explains that is why she enjoys other people’s children and asks Betsy about Tacy and Tib.  Betsy guesses from what Mrs. Poppy says that she is lonesome.  Mrs. Poppy admits it is hard to make friends, living in a hotel.   She gave up her career in musical comedy to marry Mr. Poppy.

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Chapters 6 and 7

Chapter 6, Betsy’s Desk

Now that she has been to the theatre to see Uncle Tom's Cabin, Betsy is curious about her actor uncle.  Mrs. Ray clearly misses her brother very much since he ran away from home.   She describes how he looked like her with red wavy hair and had Julia’s skill with singing and piano but also wrote stories like Betsy.  Betsy absorbs every word.

Betsy-Tacy Go Downtown, Chapters 3 - 5

Chapter 3 and 4     Winona’s Tickets, More About Winona's Tickets

When Betsy, Tacy and Tib finish bragging about Tib’s adventure, they begin to plot to persuade Winona to invite them to the show.  They consider a bribe but then Tacy has a better idea – they should hypnotize her!

“Take us to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Take us.  Take us.  Take us,” they intone silently from all directions during the school day.  Winona is slightly unnerved by their glassy stares and their teacher.   The trio’s teacher scolds them for not facing front and doesn’t understand why Tib won’t describe her exciting horseless carriage experience but Tib realized that might hurt their cause with Winona.  In fact, Winona says loudly that she won’t take people who stare at her! The girls drop that plan but hypnosis continues to appeal to certain Betsy-Tacy fans in the Pacific Northwest when needed.

 

Betsy is yearning for Uncle Tom’s Cabin but nobly she does not ask her father to get her a ticket because she knows that wouldn’t help Tacy.   Her longing was a little like what she felt when she saw rows and rows of books in other people’s bookcases (she had read all the books in the bookcase at home).  Kindred meet spirit!  Not that I will ever finish all the books at my home!

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown, Chapters 1 and 2

Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace is the fourth Betsy-Tacy book, set in 1904-05 and published in 1943.  The girls are now 12 years old and in the seventh grade. 

It is time for Betsy, Tacy and Tib’s world to be expanded in another direction.  The trio is now 12.  When Downtown opens, Betsy is in her beloved maple tree from which she can see the town of Deep Valley, Minnesota.   She sees four places that MHL knows will be important to her (and to us!), “the Opera House, the Melborn Hotel, the skeleton of the new Carnegie Library, and the high school that her sister Julia and Tacy’s sister Katie attended.”  She is aware of a world unexplored.  

 

Betsy has one of the notebooks from her father’s shoe store and is working on a dramatic-sounding story, The Repentance of Lady Clinton by Betsy Warrington Ray.*   Even before Tacy appears to reveal that her father found their borrowed copy of Lady Audley’s Secret and threw it in the fire.

“He said it was trash.”

“Trash!” cried Betsy.  “I’m trying to write books just like it.”