Sarah, Plain and Tall

Sarah, Plain and Tall
by Patricia MacLachlan
Report by Jonathan Hinrichs

There was a father with two children, Anna and Caleb. Their mother had a son, Caleb, then she died the next day. So Caleb never had a mom. They always wanted a mom.

Once there was a man who advertised for a wife and he got one. So that’s what Caleb and Anna’s dad did.

Then a woman wrote a letter to them and said, “I do not have a husband. I live by the beach. My name is Sarah and I am plain and tall.”

Then they wrote letters back and forth. Then one day she wrote a letter that said, “I will come. I have a yellow bonnet and I am plain and tall.” She said she would be at the train station.

The day that Sarah came, papa went to the train station. Caleb and Anna first saw dust in the passage. Then they went to the wagon and out came Sarah and she came with her own things. Then they wondered if she would be nice and she was.
Sarah brought many special things with her. She gave some of them to the children. Like a shell that you could hear the ocean in. And a stone that was white and very round. She also brought her gray cat named Seal. Seal was gray and white just like the seals. Sarah told them that she would miss the ocean.

They went through a lot of hard times. Like one time they went through a kind of storm that was really bad and they had to stay in the barn and the house almost fell but it didn’t.

Caleb always asked Sarah if she brought some of the sea. One day she brought gray, blue and green pencils, and candles. She said to their father Jacob that they would get married in the summer.