The Moffats (23 page)

But now everything was ready. The moving men mopped their brows. One took a fresh chew of tobacco.

"Get on," they said. For all the Moffats were going to ride to the new house with them.

Jane jumped down from the hitching post. She joined Mama, who was banging the green shutters with a firm hand. The back door was already locked and now Mama locked the front door.

"Have I forgotten anything?" she asked.

They stopped for a moment and thought. No. Nothing had been forgotten. Nothing left behind. They went out to the van. Joe and Rufus were already sitting on the back, right under the little stove and Madame. Janey climbed up beside them and Mama climbed up beside the driver. Sylvie ran around from the backyard. In her hand were sprigs of green things she would transplant in the new yard. She climbed up and sat on the ironing board. Now they were ready to go.

The driver said "Giddyap" to the team.

Suddenly Mama said. "Who-a! Where is Catherine-the-cat?"

There she was, that cat, sitting in the pear tree, looking at them all with intense disapproval. Joe jumped off to catch her. She did not like all this upset and confusion. She arched her back at Joe and she absolutely refused to come. Mama leaned out of the wagon.

"Catherine, come here," she commanded. And Catherine obeyed. Mama was one person she always obeyed. She did not come in a straight path, but she came. She skulked along the house and then along the fence, and finally landed at the moving van, her head looking suspiciously to left and right. She leaped into the cold grate of the kitchen stove and there she sat, glowering.

Now they really were off! The team backed up. Then it started creaking and groaning up the street. The children waved at the yellow house.

"Good-bye, good-bye," they sang. Again there were lumps in their throats, but they didn't cry. They were sad but they were excited, too. They were moving! Moving to something different.

They waved their handkerchiefs until they turned the corner from New Dollar Street into Elm Street. Now they could no longer see the yellow house. Good-bye, yellow house! Good-bye!

Eleanor Estes
(1906–1988) grew up in West Haven, Connecticut, which she renamed Cranbury for her classic stories about the Moffat and Pye families. A children's librarian for many years, she launched her writing career with the publication of
The Motfats
in 1941. Two of her outstanding books about the Moffats—
Rufus M.
and
The Middle Moffat—were
, awarded Newbery Honors, as was her short novel
The Hundred Dresses.
She won the Newbery Medal for
Ginger Pye
in 1952.