Step by step, listening for Mrs. Titcomb's heavy breathing from her chair by the parlor window, Andrew tiptoed down the narrow dark stairs and carefully unbolted and opened the front door. It creaked a little as it opened and Mrs. Titcomb snorted in her sleep. Andrew prepared to run, but the woman did not wake up, and he softly closed the door behind him.
Now that he was on the steps, facing the neat red brick Philadelphia street, he scarcely knew what to do nor where to go. He could hear Mr. Bumblebee Titcomb, as people called him, hammering down the lid of a box in the narrow backyard, ready to be packed in the wagon when it should come at dawn tomorrow to take them all away. AWAY!
The lives of the Titcombs are ruled by foolish Mrs. Titcomb's dreams. For instance, she has dreamt that Captain Patterson, the father of their young boarder, Andrew, has drowned and that they are to leave the only place Captain Patterson would know to look for his son. Though the ship is four months overdue, Andrew cannot believe that his father is dead. Caught up in the hopelessly futile whims of his guardians, he tries to leave what clues he can. Here is another authentic Early American story complete with poems and young Sally's irrepressible spirit.
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