The Moffats

Summary

The Moffats follows a year in the life of a family with little money and a great deal of fun in the small Connecticut town of Cranbury, around the time of the First World War. Mama, a widow, earns their living as a dressmaker in the rented yellow house on New Dollar Street, where she lives with her four children: Sylvie, the eldest, gentle and grown-up; Joey, the steady older brother who does the heavy chores; Jane, the imaginative middle girl through whose eyes much of the book is seen; and Rufus, five and a half and always in the middle of something. Catherine-the-Cat lives with them too. In the first chapter a For Sale sign goes up on the yellow house, and the worry that they will have to move runs under the whole book. Each of the twelve chapters is a nearly complete adventure. Jane copies the walk of a stately gentleman in the street, then spends a day hiding from the new Chief of Police, sure he means to arrest her, until he finds her in the baker's bread box and laughs. On his first day of kindergarten Rufus follows the runaway Hughie Pudge onto a freight train, which carries the two little boys off down the line. The children drive a horse and wagon for a Salvation Army man resting in the back, lose him off the tail on a detour, and end with him as their guest at Sunday dinner. On Halloween they rig a ghost from Mama's dressmaking form to frighten the bully Peter Frost. Joey's sailor's hornpipe at the dancing-school recital is going badly until a dog that once belonged to a sailor jumps on stage and dances with him. When Rufus catches scarlet fever, a quarantine sign goes up beside the For Sale sign; the older children keep house while Mama nurses him and tells stories of her own childhood. Joe and Jane lose the family's last five-dollar bill on the way to buy coal from the coal barge. Jane spends a five-cent tip on ice cream and then feels sorry that she did not share. In a temper she pelts the For Sale sign with mud, has to scrub it clean, and so draws the attention of the Murdocks, who keep coming to look at the house. Jane, Joe and Rufus ride the new Second Avenue trolley line to the shore and watch two motormen quarrel. At last the house is sold, and in the final chapter the Moffats pack up and leave the yellow house for another home in Cranbury. Published by Harcourt, Brace in 1941 with drawings by Louis Slobodkin, it was Estes's first book and began a series continued in The Middle Moffat (1942), Rufus M. (1943) and The Moffat Museum (1983).

Plot or Argument

• Chapter 1: The Yellow House on New Dollar Street

  The family and their house are introduced, and a sign announcing that the yellow house is for sale appears, threatening the only home the children have known.

• Chapter 2: Jane and the Chief of Police

  Jane imitates the walk of a dignified gentleman, then becomes convinced that the new Chief of Police is after her. She avoids him all day and hides in the baker's bread box, where he finds her and laughs away her fear.

• Chapter 3: The First Day of School

  Rufus is eager for kindergarten, but his classmate Hughie Pudge hates it and slips away. Rufus follows him onto a freight train, and the train pulls out with both boys aboard.

• Chapter 4: A Horse and Wagon

  Jane, Joe and Rufus are allowed to drive a wagon while its owner, a Salvation Army man, rests in the back. A detour goes wrong and they lose their passenger, but explanations are made and he comes to Sunday dinner.

• Chapters 5-6: The Ghost in the Attic; The Sailor's Hornpipe

  On Halloween the children build a ghost from Mama's dressmaker's form to scare Peter Frost. At the dancing-school recital Joey stumbles through the sailor's hornpipe until a sailor's old dog joins him on stage and saves the dance.

• Chapter 7: Another Sign on the Yellow House

  Rufus falls ill with scarlet fever and the house is quarantined. The older children run the household while Mama nurses Rufus and entertains them with stories of her girlhood.

• Chapters 8-9: The Coal Barge; Share and Share Alike

  Sent to buy coal, Joe and Jane discover that they have lost the family's last five dollars. Later Jane earns a nickel tip on an errand for one of Mama's customers, spends it on ice cream, and is sorry she kept it to herself.

• Chapters 10-11: Mud and Murdocks; The New Second Avenue Trolley Line

  Jane splashes mud on the For Sale sign, must clean it, and catches the eye of the Murdocks, who become frequent visitors and prospective buyers; Jane gets even with their youngest daughter, Letitia. Then three of the children ride the new trolley to the beach and enjoy an argument between motormen.

• Chapter 12: The Last Chapter in the Yellow House

  The house is sold, and the Moffats pack their belongings and say goodbye to the yellow house before moving to their new home in Cranbury.

Characters

• Mama (Mrs. Moffat), mother

  Widowed dressmaker who keeps the family fed and cheerful on very little.

• Sylvie Moffat, eldest child

  Gentle, sensible older sister who helps Mama run the house.

• Joey (Joe) Moffat, older brother

  Dependable, quiet boy who fetches coal and does the man's work of the household, though he cannot dance.

• Jane Moffat, central child

  Imaginative, impulsive middle daughter whose fears, tempers and inventions drive many chapters.

• Rufus Moffat, youngest

  Five-and-a-half-year-old whose eagerness carries him onto freight trains and into scarlet fever.

• Catherine-the-Cat, family pet

  The Moffats' cat.

• Hughie Pudge, Rufus's classmate

  Kindergartner who runs away from school and onto a freight train.

• Peter Frost, neighborhood bully

  Target of the children's Halloween ghost.

• The Chief of Police, town official

  New chief whom Jane imagines is hunting her, and who turns out to be good-humored.

• The Murdocks, prospective buyers

  Family who keep coming to inspect the yellow house; their youngest is Letitia.

Lessons

• Rich in each other

  The Moffats have no father, little money and a house that is being sold out from under them, yet the book is full of laughter. Mama's hard work and good humor, and the children's loyalty to one another, make the yellow house a happy home. Estes shows that a family's happiness does not depend on how much it owns.

  • What are some ways the Moffats have fun without spending money?
  • How does Mama earn money for the family?
  • Why do you think the Moffats are happy even though they are poor?

• Fears that look different in daylight

  Jane spends a whole day sure that the Chief of Police means to arrest her, and hides in a bread box to escape him. When he finds her, he only laughs. The chapter shows how a child's imagination can make a fear grow, and how facing the grown-up often makes it vanish.

  • Why did Jane think the Chief of Police was after her?
  • What happened when he finally found her?
  • Have you ever worried about something that turned out not to be a problem at all?

• Share and share alike

  When a customer gives Jane a five-cent tip, she spends it on ice cream for herself and then feels the pinch of having forgotten her family. In a household where every coin matters, the lost five-dollar bill and the nickel spent alone teach the children that money is held in common and that sharing is part of love.

  • What did Jane do with her nickel, and how did she feel afterward?
  • Why was losing the five-dollar bill on the way to the coal barge so serious for the Moffats?
  • What could Jane have done with the nickel instead?

• Caring for one another in sickness

  When Rufus has scarlet fever and the house is shut in by quarantine, everyone has a part. Sylvie, Joe and Jane keep the household going while Mama nurses Rufus and keeps up their spirits with stories. Hard days become a time when the family works together.

  • What did the quarantine sign mean for the Moffats?
  • How did the older children help while Rufus was sick?

Context

The book is set in a small Connecticut shore town in the 1910s, when the First World War was being fought in Europe, coal was bought by the bushel to heat a house, trolley lines were spreading through New England towns, and a widow with children might support them by sewing for others. Scarlet fever was a common and feared childhood disease, and a household with a case was placed under a public quarantine sign.

Composition

Estes drew on her own childhood in West Haven, Connecticut, which became Cranbury in the books. She wrote the book while working as a children's librarian, and Harcourt, Brace published it in 1941 with drawings by Louis Slobodkin, who also illustrated the next two Moffat books.

Reception

Reviewers welcomed it at once; the Horn Book called it a merry book with abundant humor in story and pictures, and Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review. Its two sequels, The Middle Moffat and Rufus M., were Newbery Honor Books in 1943 and 1944, and Estes returned to the family four decades later in The Moffat Museum (1983). The series is admired for writing about childhood from the child's own level.

Comparisons

• the-hundred-dresses

  Estes's 1944 story also takes place in a Connecticut town among children with little money, but turns from the Moffats' comedy to the cost of teasing a poor classmate.

• little-women

  Both books follow four children and a hard-working mother keeping a cheerful, close household through money troubles while a war goes on far away.

• the-boxcar-children

  Four siblings again make a home with almost nothing, though the Aldens are orphans on their own while the Moffats have Mama at the center.

• homer-price

  Two episodic books of small-town American comedy from the early 1940s, each chapter a self-contained misadventure with a child at its center.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The For Sale sign on the yellow house. Notice how often it comes back, and what Jane does to it in Chapter 10.
• Money in the book: the five-dollar bill for coal, Jane's nickel, Mama's dressmaking. Notice how carefully the Moffats count it.
• Jane's imagination, which makes some things scarier and some things funnier than they really are.
• How each chapter is a small adventure of its own, and which child is at the center of each one.

Key terms and names

Cranbury

The small Connecticut town where the Moffats live, based on Eleanor Estes's hometown.

Dressmaker

A person who sews dresses for customers. Mama earns the family's money this way at home.

Quarantine

Keeping a sick person's household shut in so a disease does not spread. A quarantine sign goes up when Rufus has scarlet fever.

Scarlet fever

A contagious sickness with fever and a red rash that was common among children when the Moffats lived.

Coal barge

A flat boat carrying coal. Joe and Jane go to buy coal from one to heat the house.

Trolley

An electric streetcar running on rails. Cranbury's new Second Avenue line takes the children to the shore.

Sailor's hornpipe

A lively solo dance associated with sailors. Joey must perform one at the dancing-school recital.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Who are the four Moffat children, and what is each one like?
2. Comprehension How did Rufus end up on a freight train on his first day of school?
3. Comprehension What saved Joey's sailor's hornpipe at the recital?
4. Interpretation Why did Jane throw mud at the For Sale sign? Did it help or make things worse?
5. Interpretation When Rufus was sick, Mama told stories of when she was a girl. Why do you think stories helped the family during the quarantine?
6. Interpretation Jane felt bad after eating her ice cream alone. Why did sharing matter so much in the Moffat family?
7. Big Question The Moffats had to leave a house they loved. What makes a place a home: the house itself, or the people in it?

Faith Connections

• Philippians 4:11-12 (Scripture)

  Paul says he has learned to be content whether he has plenty or is in need. The Moffats count every coin yet find joy in trolley rides, Halloween ghosts and Sunday dinners.

• Proverbs 31:13-27 (Scripture)

  The woman who works with willing hands, makes garments and looks well to the ways of her household is a picture of Mama sewing for her customers to keep her children.

• Hebrews 13:2 (Scripture)

  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. The Salvation Army man the children met on the road ends up at the Moffats' Sunday dinner table, though they have little to spare.

• Acts 2:44-45 (Scripture)

  The first Christians held their goods in common and shared with any who had need. Jane's regret over her nickel shows a family that lives by the same rule.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: The Moffats lack money, a father and even a secure house, which might seem to make an unhappy childhood. But in chapter after chapter they turn small events into adventures, help one another through sickness and loss, and share what they have. So a family's happiness comes from love, work and good humor rather than from possessions, and it can travel with them when the yellow house is sold.

Rhetorical device: episodic structure with a frame. The For Sale sign of Chapter 1 frames twelve separate adventures and returns in Chapters 7, 10 and 12, tying the loose episodes into one story of losing a home.

Debate: Resolved: Jane was more to blame than the Murdocks for the trouble over the For Sale sign.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Choose your favorite Moffat chapter and explain how one child's choice made the adventure happen and how it turned out.

Comparison with The Hundred Dresses: Both of Eleanor Estes's books are about Connecticut children without much money. Compare how Jane Moffat and Wanda Petronski are treated by the people around them, and what each book teaches about kindness.

Medical Lens

One chapter gives a plain child's-eye picture of scarlet fever in a household of the 1910s: the sick child kept apart, the mother nursing at home, and the public quarantine placard on the house, which here has the added effect of keeping buyers away. It shows the period's public-health practice of isolating a contagious household rather than any medical treatment in detail.

• Chapter 7, Another Sign on the Yellow House

  Rufus has scarlet fever, the house is quarantined, and Mama nurses him while the older children keep house.

  Fever Infection Public Health Sanitation Nursing Caregiving

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Draw a map of Cranbury from the book: the yellow house on New Dollar Street, the bakery with its bread box, the railroad yard, the coal barge and the new trolley line to the shore.

• Fiction

  Write a new Moffat chapter: something happens on New Dollar Street, and each of the four children reacts in his or her own way.

• Dialogue

  Act out Jane hiding in the bread box and the Chief of Police finding her.

• Essay

  Which Moffat child is most like you? Explain using two chapters from the book.

Further Reading

• The Middle Moffat, Eleanor Estes

  The 1942 sequel centered on Jane; a Newbery Honor Book.

• Rufus M., Eleanor Estes

  The 1943 sequel centered on Rufus; a Newbery Honor Book.

• The Moffat Museum, Eleanor Estes

  The family's last book, published in 1983.

• Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes

  Estes's Newbery Medal book of 1952, also set in Cranbury.