Week of May 28, 2007

Chapter Seventeen: In Which I Am Sold at Auction:

This chapter starts out with Hitty still in the cabinet and awaiting the arrival of the “old lady”. Rachel didn’t give the lady a name. Hitty spent all these years in her home and apparently never knew her name. Maybe Rachel was getting tired of the story and wanted to get it done and didn’t bother with details. [See discussion about the “old lady” with Chapter 8 synopsis.]
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Hitty is apparently to be sold at auction. She is happy to finally be away from the china animals she had spent years sitting with.
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On the day of the auction Hitty does not care for the way she is manhandled by the crowd who are anxious to look her over. One gentleman, though, is very cautious and careful with her and declares that she “is a very rare bit of early Americana.” He wins the bidding for Hitty, thankfully, as I wonder what Hitty’s life would have been if the “large lady in a tight pink dress and bright green hat” had won her. The old man puts Hitty in his jacket pocket with her head out. She can see everything as they walk down the road to Portland. She notices that not much has changed in 100 years besides an added house or two, strange ships in the harbor and cars flashing by. They boarded a train, and as the train crossed into New Hampshire he said “You’re beginning your travels now, Hitty. I don’t suppose you were ever out of the State of Maine before.” Oh, if only she could talk!!
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In this chapter, Hitty shows many of the emotions we have come to recognize in her.

She was a bit put out when the old lady didn't return to the Preble house in the spring to keep Hitty company during the nice days. Of course she couldn't know the lady had died.

She was "filled with vague misgivings" when unknown men tramped through the house hanging numbers on everything, including her. She didn't know what an auction was!

She was surprised, once again, by the changes in women's and children's clothing styles.

She was upset when the bidders handled her roughly.

She was hopeful that the little girl Molly was interested in owning her.

She was flattered by the attentions of the Old Gentleman.

She was surprised by the types of common household objects that were popular and expensive.

She had tremors in her pegs when she was bid on, but she tried to maintain her dignity as her pride surfaced at the high price.

She was "rather overcome" by all these emotions and was relieved to be politely and kindly handled by the Old Gentleman.

Her last thought, I feel, was a smug little smirk-- "If you only knew the places I've been and the things I've seen!"

In Which We Invent New Endings For This Chapter:

What if Rachel had her go with the lady in the tight pink dress and bright green hat? She could have had many strange adventures. Perhaps the lady was a gun moll! She could have been running around robbing places like Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde fame. She sure would have been recognizable with that gaudy outfit on. She could have been the head of a gang of robbers. The time frame was almost correct for Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, and Eliot Ness. They would have been pretty young in 1920 but there were a lot of gangs running around in that time frame. (Hitty might have become really famous as the sidekick of a gun moll. Imagine her previous owners’ shock if they saw a picture of Hitty in the newspaper portrayed as a member of a gang of robbers.)

Perhaps the lady would have loved and taken good care of Hitty. Maybe she wanted a female companion to be with her all the time, someone she could trust. Maybe she wanted Hitty to join her in a heist. Hitty would easily fit into a pocket to go on a “bank run”. I can only imagine what would be going through Hitty’s mind. Not exactly a story for young children. My mind is wandering this morning and I guess I’m losing it. Better leave the writing to others. But then . . . if the lady got caught, perhaps the FBI man would grab Hitty for his daughter!! And then she’s off to another, and, I’m sure, a much safer adventure much to Hitty’s relief.
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haha!! Hitty the gun moll!! She would then have been dropped in the bank and saved someone's life by taking the bullet meant for them, right?
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OH DEAR--- a bullet in the HITTY BOD?????? I would say she saved a life by being dropped --- startling the bad guys when they heard her hit the floor. Everyone else hit the floor after that.. thus missing the one bullet fired? The bad guys ran from the bank, almost empty handed. Hitty was found by a little girl during the aftermath confusion. Girl tucked Hitty into a pocket, only to take her out when she was safely home. Later, someone remembered the doll hitting the floor. Girl and Hitty got a huge spread in the paper's across the nation and............ what next? :)
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Oh, definitely not the bullet for Hitty. What would have happened is, the bullet would have deflected off her magical mountain ash wood body, ricocheted up and hit the vault, ricocheted again and hit the robber in the butt, thereby disabling him. The other robber would have been so stunned that the people in the bank would jump him and it would be all over. Our Hitty would be the heroine. The FBI man would claim her for his daughter and Hitty would be off to a new life!!!
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That is a riot! Hitty's lucky mountain ash wood saves the day, AND she gets a wonderful new and young owner!
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Maybe the “gun moll” loses Hitty to the FBI man, and the FBI man’s daughter is little Molly who attended the auction and wanted Hitty.
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Oh, heavens--I think it would have been both terrible and wonderful if the horrible lady had won Hitty! Perhaps she would have escaped and been found by the little girl! But then, she wouldn't have ended up in the antiques shop, would she?

I loved this chapter, although I was rooting for the poor little girl. She would have made such a great Mom for Hitty.
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I think it would be fun to come up with an alternate ending with the little girl winning her in the auction...just imagine the new adventures she could've had.
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OUR PRECIOUS HITTY? A Criminal? A GUN MOLL? 'Say it ain't so' --- (but it would be interesting).
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I love your rendition of a different ending for Hitty. Although Rachel wrote this book in more mature language, the book itself was written for children so I doubt she would have made Hitty go with the lady if she were a gun moll. I thought the lady was more like Zylooka Dunbar who ran the boarding house on the TV show "The Waltons". Hitty could have had some great adventures with the residents of the boarding house. She even might have been packed into one of the resident’s suitcases when the person decided to move on, and then another adventure would begin.
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Or maybe Mata Hari!!! Or Amelia Earhart!!! Sandra Bernhardt!!! I bet we could think of plenty of 1920's celebrities in disguise.

From Hitty Timeline:
1920 something, September: Hitty is sold at auction, and goes to the Antique Shop in New York. "The Old Gentleman came forward, and a cheer actually went up as he straightened my clothes. Never since my days on the island have I felt more grateful for an escape."

Hitty’s Travels Thus Far:

Chapter 1: In Maine with the Preble family;
Chapter 2: To Portland, Maine;
Aboard ship bound for the South Seas on a whaling expedition;
Chapter 6: Lost on a South Sea Island;
Chapter 8: Rescued at sea and arrival in Bombay, India; traveling back and forth across India with the snake charmer;
Chapter 9: A new home with a missionary family in India; on board ship with Little Thankful and headed to Philadelphia in America to live with Little Thankful’s grandparents;
Chapter 10: A new family, the Pryces, in Philadelphia;
Chapter 12: To New York to reside with the Van Rensselaer family;
Chapter 13: From Washington Square in New York to become a gift for Tim Dooley’s cousin, Katie. Travels to Katie’s home in Rhode Island, then to the country so that Katie could recuperate from her illness; lost in the hay and tossed into the hayloft and there for “years”.
Chapter 14: Hitty is finally found and sold to a traveling portrait painter for a quarter. She travels the country posing for portraits with little girls. Many times to New York and Philadelphia, then down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Stays in the French Quarter with the Larraby sisters. Appears at the Cotton Exposition in New Orleans and is then stolen by little Sally Loomis and taken onboard her father’s river steamboat, Morning Glory, to travel up the Mississippi delivering cotton.
Chapter 15: Found floating in a basket on the Mississippi River; given to a little Negro girl, Car’line who lived on a plantation; recognized by the planatation owner’s daughter as the doll who disappeared from the Cotton Exposition; is packaged and mailed back to New Orleans; then mailed to her former owner, the Artist, Mr. Farley, at his address in New York, but as Mr. Farley could not be found, Hitty winds up in a dead letter office at the post office; is eventually put in a grab bag and sold; carried to a tobacco shop by the new owner and accidently left there; picked up by a ticket agent and taken to his home and then made into a doll pincushion by the ticket agent’s wife to be sold at the Church Fair.
Chapter 16: To Boston as a gift for Great Aunt Louella. Given to Louella’s friend, Pamela Wellington. Goes on a motor trip with Miss Pamela and winds up in the State of Maine. Lost by Pamela, found by picnickers, found by stable man, given to stable man’s daughter, taken to her sister Carrie’s restaurant on the Falmouth Road in Portland, Maine. Purchased by an old lady and taken to the old lady’s home which turns out to be the Preble House in Maine where Hitty was carved and started her travels.
Chapter 17: Hitty is sold at auction and taken by her new owner, the Old Gentleman, to New York.

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