The Four Hungry Children
- Four mysterious children peer into a bakery window, admiring the goods on display.
- As they discuss the relative merits of bread versus sweets, the baker's wife eyes them with suspicion. She doesn't like kids.
- Two of the kids are Benny and Violet, who are about 5 and 10 years old, respectively. The older kids are Jessie and Henry.
- Henry decides they'll buy bread because it's more nutritious than cake. He seems really practical.
- On the way in, he mentions that maybe they can stay the night at the bakery. Maybe Henry isn't so practical after all?
- Jessie asks for three loaves of bread. Henry pays for them. The baker's wife continues to give them the stink eye.
- Upon seeing some benches, Jessie asks the baker's wife if she and her companions can sleep there that night. She offers to wash dishes and do other chores around the bakery the next day.
- The baker's wife doesn't like the idea of the children staying the night, but she does like the idea of not having to do the dishes herself.
- She asks the children about their parents. Oh, they're dead. NBD.
- Benny, the youngest boy, offers up that they have a grandfather that lives in a nearby town, Greenfield, but they don't like him. Jessie seems to wish he had kept quiet.
- The baker's wife asks why they don't like their grandfather. Though the children have never met him, their understanding is that he didn't like their mother, aka his daughter-in-law, so they just assume he wouldn't like them, either.
- The baker's wife asks the children where they used to live, but the four kids stay mum. They're done talking.
- The baker's wife agrees to the plan. Henry thanks her, and the four kids sit down for their sad bread dinner. Henry declares it delicious, and the baker's wife walks off in a huff.
- Benny observes that the baker's wife doesn't like the four children. He's not wrong.
- The children bed down on the benches, and the youngest two fall asleep immediately. Jessie and Henry are still up, though, and they can hear the baker and his wife talking.
- The baker's wife wants to keep the three oldest children and give Benny up to the Children's Home. Dang, that's cold, baker's wife.
- The baker agrees and then says they should find out about the grandfather. He seems marginally more responsible than his wife, if just as awful.
- Jessie and Henry stay silent until they're sure the baker and his wife are asleep. They immediately agree they must flee the bakery.
- Jessie takes stock of their gear: clothes, soap, towels, a laundry bag, Violet's workbag, two loaves of bread, a knife, and $4. That's it.
- They decide to carry Benny, who's still sleeping, and wake Violet; when they do, she's ready to roll without any questions.
- Henry scoops up Benny, and the children quietly leave the bakery, fleeing into the night. Boxcar Children out!