How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Rumor had it they had a long and interesting history, and that before they turned their hands to laundry, they had been an altogether less respectable crew, but nobody in Ratbridge knew that much about them yet. (16.1)
Got to love the rumor mill. The crew of the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry was, in all likelihood, a band of pirates before they showed up in this sleepy little town… but who can prove it? It seems like they've been smart enough to not announce to everyone that they've had a shady past, which helps, of course.
Quote #5
"Herbert, we grew up on the same street! We played together, got measles together… and got our ears clipped together. Don't you remember burning a hole in my mum's carpet with the toy steam engine we tried to build?" (39.5)
Here, Grandfather reminisces with Herbert about their past in order to try to jog his memory. Apparently their past includes a lot of time spent together, doing the kinds of things boys would do in Ratbridge (which we guess includes setting carpets on fire). Luckily the tales of their past adventures start to get Herbert remembering things again.
Quote #6
"Ratbridge was founded on the cheese, but when new industries came to town, the smoke and waste they produced poisoned the water supply and a lot of countryside around it. It got so bad that the local cheeses were decreed unfit to eat, and the cheese industry collapsed. The cheese barons went bankrupt overnight." (39.20)
Thanks, Grandfather, for this brief history lesson about Ratbridge. It seems like the history of industrialization played out there like it did in a lot of other places, bringing pollution and disruption into the town. This affected the cheese barons, which set Snatcher up to run his evil plot to try to restore the Cheese Guild to its former glory.
Without this background, we wouldn't have a sense of why Snatcher—who comes from a cheese baron family—is so desperate for revenge on the town.