How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
One warm night four children stood in front of a bakery. No one knew them. No one knew where they had come from. (1.1)
When the book begins, the Alden children are homeless, seeking shelter for the night in a bakery. Notice how it's a "warm night"? Already things could be worse—for instance, it could be cold and raining.
Quote #2
Then she saw something ahead of her in the woods. It was an old boxcar.
"What a good home that will be in the rain!" she thought. (3.6-3.7)
Although the Alden kids don't decide to make the boxcar their permanent address until later in the book, Jessie thinks of it as home at first sight.
Quote #3
"What a good place this is!" said Violet. "It is just like a warm little house with one room." (3.19)
Oh yes, Violet—it's just like a warm little house, except for the part where it's an abandoned boxcar in the wilderness. Po-ta-to, po-tah-to, we suppose.
Quote #4
"We could have the nicest little home here, and we could find some dishes, and make four beds and a table, and maybe chairs!" (3.26)
Does IKEA have a boxcar section? Because Jessie's plans here sound pretty ambitious.
Quote #5
"It looks like home," said Henry. "See the washing!" (4.62)
Making the boxcar look like the children's former house helps it feel like a real home.
Quote #6
When they were on the shelf, Violet picked some white and yellow flowers and put them in a cup full of water in the middle of the shelf. (5.52)
Home is in the details, you know? Life in the boxcar isn't just about surviving—it's about décor, too, and the kids want to make themselves as comfortable as possible.
Quote #7
"I thought we ought to have a tablecloth," he said. "So I got one at the store." (6.26)
Poor Henry—who has about $4 to his name and lives with his three siblings in a rusty box in the woods—thought that a tablecloth was a necessity. We're betting he wouldn't survive the zombie apocalypse.
Quote #8
When the cherry pickers got back to their little home, they looked everything over carefully. But things were just as they had left them. The door was still closed, and the milk and butter were in the refrigerator. (9.35)
The "refrigerator" is literally a hole in a rock, by the way. No matter to these kids, though; it gets the job done, which is all they need.
Quote #9
The children's grandfather wanted them to like his house. He wanted them to live with him all the time. So he had made over some of the rooms just for them. (13.1)
Mr. Alden goes to great lengths to make his grandchildren comfortable in his home, but they don't really settle in until he hauls their old boxcar into the yard.
Quote #10
Would you ever think that four children could be homesick in such a beautiful house? Jessie was the first one to wish for the old boxcar. (13.46)
The boxcar was such a good home to the children that they miss it even though they now live in a beautiful mansion. A place doesn't have to be fancy to be home.