Have you ever felt like just getting away from it all? Perhaps in moments of trouble or frustration you, like I, have thought how wonderful it would be just to keep driving in the direction you were going, turning away from all the job struggles, family worries, quarrelsome friends, and debt.
At such times the life of an old time peddler might seem exciting. There is an old reading basal that formed a lot of my life’s thought patterns, Looking Ahead (Reading for Meaning 4th ed., ©1966 Houghton Mifflin, Boston). This particular edition was copyrighted only one year after I was born, though earlier editions appeared in 1963 and 1957. The front cover of the red-backed book has a brown owl on a branch underneath an orange quarter moon. (The full text of an earlier printing of the book can be found at:
https://archive.org/details/ReadingForMeaningLookingAhead/page/n185/mod…
I am somewhat fascinated as to why this book affected me as it has. I was only a student for the first story of textbook in the third grade classroom of the late, great Florence Chesney. Right after we studied that first story, we received new textbooks in another basal series that was to follow my classmates and me through sixth grade. I never overly cared for any book or story in that series. As fate would have it, a basal series from that same “replacement” company was being used when I began teaching third grade at Luttrell in 1987, and I didn’t like it, either!
Looking Ahead was in the same series that introduced untold millions of United States schoolchildren just like me to Jack and Janet and Tip and Mitten. I guess that has some bearing on why I also have a soft spot for dogs and cats. My very own Precious Kitty does bear an amazing resemblance to Mitten, though of course my Precious is much more beautiful!
Looking Ahead has a wonderful story of a boy and his love for signs and a desk (not included in the full text version accessed on Internet per the site above), and another about a dog and a dinner bell. You guessed it, I have a roll top desk and a couple of dinner bells, and have had a few dogs in my time. One story in Looking Ahead of which I am particularly fond is “Nathan and the Peddler”. My fascination for this particular story is in great part due to the outstanding illustrations credited on the copyright page to Witold T. Mars (an interesting Google search).
There was a boy named Nathan Branch who was sent by a doctor in his community to live with the cross, surly Mrs. Hodges after his mother died. One day Daniel Whitehill, the peddler, came walking by, and Daniel decided to strike out with him to find his cousin to see if he could live with her.
The story is, per the copyright page, is adapted by authors Paul McKee et al. for the basal from the original story of the same title written by Electa Clark. The peddler’s kindly disposition, the eager anticipation with which his circuitous arrival is greeted (especially by children), and the beautiful illustrations tend to idealize and romanticize the story, which does have a happy ending. A closer look at the story does point to the hard facts of reality.
Peddler Whitehall walked everywhere he went, a figure he supposes to be at least five hundred miles a year. He carries all his wares in a backpack. In the story, he leans this backpack against a fence post when he stops to attempt to shop with Mrs. Hodges and first talks with Nathan. Images of military marches in harsh conditions that our soldiers have endured with scores of pounds on their backs come to mind.
In one of the story’s scenes, the peddler thanks a family for paying him in cash. He states that he has in the past cut off lengths of material only to find that a family wished to trade him other wares (which might be heavy or difficult to trade as used goods) or with sacks of grain or a pig. The peddler stated he didn’t mind trading for small things, but questions how he could carry a pig!
A times, the peddler and Nathan are fed at homes they visit. Sometimes they are invited to sleep in a feather bed. Other times are hungry due to distance between homes or unfriendly people (as was Mrs. Hodges). Sometimes they sleep in barns. Even so, Nathan finds himself loving his life with the peddler—he thinks the hardships worth the benefits of the freedom of being able to go where they choose and not knowing from day to day what adventure awaits.
The saddest reality in the story is Nathan’s feeling of not being wanted. After his mother passed away, he was passed to Mrs. Hodges. While she was cross and surly to him, obviously not wanting him, she does crave the only thing that Nathan has left that belonged to his mother—a beautiful silver salt dish. When Nathan accidently knocked a pan against the silver salt dish and scratches it, Mrs. Hodges scolds him for scratching “her” silver salt dish. What a dismal feeling, for an inanimate object to be preferred to oneself.
I remember talking to Ms. Chesney in her living room one day as she recalled having taught “Nathan and the Peddler” to some of her fortunate classes. She told me how they would all cry about the death of Nathan’s mother and at the sad treatment Nathan received at the hand of Mrs. Hodges, who grudgingly took him in but loved a silver dish more than she did him. How I would have loved to have been in those classes.
Nathan had a friend and tried to visit him before he struck out with the peddler, but learned from his friend’s mother that the friend had left with family to visit Boston, one of the places that Nathan wished to see for himself. Unfortunately, friends aren’t always around when needed. Nathan found a new friend in the peddler, whose best ware to Nathan was his free gift of friendship. The peddler in turn received from Nathan a traveling companion to relieve the loneliness that he must have experienced as a nomadic travelling salesman.
Nathan found love and acceptance from Peddler Whitehall and many whom they encountered throughout the story. One lady who ran a bake shop wanted him to stay with her, but Nathan felt compelled to find his cousin. The lady shook Nathan’s hand at parting, telling him to come back if he couldn’t find his cousin or if she didn’t want him. The story ends happily with Nathan finding the love and acceptance he craved.
I hope you, Faithful Reader, not only have someone to love you, but that you also have someone to love. One of the sweetest things I remember is a visit with former Horace Maynard High School English teacher Ms. Winnie McDonald. She was either approaching or in her early nineties, and she was writing her eulogy. She read it to her daughter Sharon and me, and the one phrase that sticks in my mind is, “I have loved and been loved.” How wonderful it would be if that could be a fitting epitaph for us all.
Next week I hope to share with you an encounter I had with an unidentified stranger who sold me more than either she or I bargained for. Until then, another thought from my world of email:

Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other,
“You stay here. I’ll go on a head.”