Mike Mulligan and More: A Virginia Lee Burton Treasury Read online

  Mike Mulligan and More

  Virginia Lee Burton

  * * *

  MIKE MULLIGAN

  and More

  MIKE MULLIGAN

  and More

  A Virginia Lee Burton Treasury

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

  Boston

  * * *

  Compilation copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company

  Introduction copyright © 2002 by Barbara Elleman

  Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

  Copyright © 1939 by Virginia Lee Demetrios

  Copyright © renewed 1967 by Aristides Burton Demetrios and Michael Burton Demetrios

  The Little House

  Copyright © 1942 by Virginia Lee Demetrios

  Copyright © renewed 1969 by Aristides Burton Demetrios and Michael Burton Demetrios

  Katy and the Big Snow

  Copyright © 1943 by Virginia Lee Demetrios

  Copyright © renewed 1971 by Aristides Burton Demetrios and Michael Burton Demetrios

  Maybelle the Cable Car

  Copyright © 1952 by Virginia Lee Demetrios

  Copyright © renewed 1980 by Aristides Burton Demetrios and Michael Burton Demetrios

  All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce

  selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,

  215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

  www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this title.

  ISBN 0-618-25627-X

  Printed in Singapore

  TWP 10 9 8 7 6 5

  Introduction

  6

  Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel

  11

  The Little House

  63

  Katy and the Big Snow

  111

  Maybelle the Cable Car

  155

  Introduction

  VIRGINIA LEE BURTON BELIEVED IN CHILDREN. For her, preparing a new book meant getting children's input in the early stages of creation. She would often gather up her two young sons and their friends, offer ample portions of hot cocoa and cookies, and then watch their reactions while she read the story aloud. If the youngsters lost interest and began to fidget, she later commented, "It was back to the typewriter, back to the drawing board."

  As a result, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Little House, Katy and the Big Snow, and Maybelle the Cable Car are solidly built stories with well-integrated text and images. They evince her intense belief that stories written for children should be loved by children. That idea has proved valid: written five to six decades ago, these books not only continue to appeal to children but also remain, permanently etched, in the minds and hearts of adults who have read them in childhood. The author Ann Tyler says, "I have returned to The Little House over and over, sinking into its colorful, complicated pictures all through childhood and adolescence and adulthood," and the television talk-show host Jay Leno mentions Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel as a shaping force in his career as a comic.

  Born in Newton Center, Massachusetts, in 1909, Burton spent most of her childhood and adolescence in California. In 1928, she returned to the East, planning to join her sister's traveling dance troupe. However,

  when her father broke his leg, Virginia stayed behind to care for him: "That was the beginning and end of my dancing career, which was just as well, because I wasn't very good, anyway."

  The accident proved fortuitous for the world of children's books. Virginia abandoned thoughts of a career on stage and instead channeled her artistic talents into drawing and illustration. She worked for a time at the Boston Transcript newspaper, attending theatrical and sporting events. From a seat in the audience she sketched participating personalities, learning to capture the human form quickly and skillfully. A job teaching children art at the YMCA brought understanding of children's interests and needs. She later incorporated both of these experiences into her books.

  After a friend suggested she enroll in a figure drawing class at the Boston Museum of Art taught by the highly regarded George Demetrios, Virginia's life took a decided turn. Six months later, in a happy turn of events, she married her teacher. The couple soon settled in Folly Cove in what was then—and is still to some extent—an isolated area on Cape Ann. Folly Cove nurtured Jinnee, as she was called, on several levels. There, she fostered close relationships within her family, developed ties with the local artist community, drew strength from living intimately with nature, and found inspiration for her work. Those who knew Jinnee speak of the joy that radiated from her life—a joy, it seems, that infected everyone who came in contact with her.

  Important in her personal life, place played a major role in her books as well. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, for example, is set in Popperville—a place so real that children's letters to the publisher ask for directions to the village. In reality, Popperville is based on West Newbury, Massachusetts, a place Virginia often visited and whose town hall provided the model for the building under construction in the story.

  In Katy and the Big Snow, Burton used Gloucester as her fictional Geoppolis. She created a pictorial double-page map of Geoppolis for the book, but those familiar with Gloucester will find distinguishing landmarks. Maybelle the Cable Car, of course, is set in San Francisco, a tribute to a place well remembered and loved, where Virginia studied art and dance. Published in 1952, the book was dedicated to Mrs. Hans Klussman for being "a leading light" in the battle to save the cable cars from extinction.

  Place, perhaps, played the biggest role in Burton's The Little House. When she and her husband bought their home in Folly Cove, they thought it too close to the highway and had it moved several hundred feet back into an apple orchard. That experience, Burton tells, stimulated the writing of The Little House. Children and adults alike respond to the story. A small pink house, beloved by several generations, gradually suffers the indignities of urban sprawl and becomes bedraggled and boarded until it is finally rescued and happily returned to a pastoral setting. The Little House won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1942 for its outstanding contribution to

  children's literature and has stayed in print for its entire sixty years. Like all of Burton's books, it is grounded in the author's innate enthusiasm and glows under her artistic polish.

  Though not included in this compilation, Choo Choo: The Story of the Engine Who Ran Away also has roots in Burton's family life. The idea for the story came, Burton once revealed, while taking her eldest son, Aris, then five, to watch the switching of the railroad cars at nearby Rockport Station. Her last book, Life Story, which she worked on for eight years, is another book that exemplifies the close connections Burton made with the world around her. In the course of presenting an illustrated, geologic history of the world, Burton devoted the last twenty pages to her Folly Cove home, where a seasonal cycle shows the family planting a garden, tending the yard, gathering apples, and shoveling snow. They also find the author at her drawing board and reading under the apple tree. The book closes with, "And now it is your Life Story and it is you who play the leading role. The stage is set, the time is now, and the place wherever you are. Each passing second is a new link in the endless chain of Time. The drama of Life is a continuous story—ever new, ever changing, and ever wondrous to behold." As in the other twelve books she illustrated, Burton offers hope and comfort and joy in life. The messages she gave are as real and meaningful today as they were when written so many decades ago.

  —Barbara Elleman

  MIKE MULLIG
AN

  AND HIS STEAM SHOVEL

  MIKE MULLIGAN

  AND HIS

  STEAM SHOVEL

  STORY AND PICTURES BY VIRGINIA LEE BURTON

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY • BOSTON

  TO

  MIKE

  Mike Mulligan had a steam shovel,

  a beautiful red steam shovel.

  Her name was Mary Anne.

  Mike Mulligan was very proud of Mary Anne.

  He always said that she could dig as much in a day

  as a hundred men could dig in a week,

  but he had never been quite sure

  that this was true.

  Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne

  had been digging together

  for years and years.

  Mike Mulligan took such good care

  of Mary Anne

  she never grew old.

  It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne

  and some others

  who dug the great canals

  for the big boats

  to sail through.

  It was Mike Mulligan

  and Mary Anne

  and some others

  who cut through

  the high mountains

  so that trains

  could go through.

  It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne

  and some others

  who lowered the hills

  and straightened the curves

  to make the long highways

  for the automobiles.

  It was Mike Mulligan

  and Mary Anne

  and some others

  who smoothed out the ground

  and filled in the holes

  to make the landing fields

  for the airplanes.

  And it was Mike Mulligan

  and Mary Anne

  and some others

  who dug the deep holes

  for the cellars

  of the tall skyscrapers

  in the big cities.

  When people used to stop

  and watch them,

  Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne

  used to dig a little faster

  and a little better.

  The more people stopped,

  the faster and better they dug.

  Some days they would keep

  as many as thirty-seven trucks

  busy taking away the dirt they had dug.

  Then along came

  the new gasoline shovels

  and the new electric shovels

  and the new Diesel motor shovels

  and took all the jobs away from the steam shovels.

  Mike Mulligan

  and Mary Anne

  were

  VERY

  SAD.

  All the other steam shovels were being sold for junk,

  or left out in old gravel pits to rust and fall apart.

  Mike loved Mary Anne. He couldn't do that to her.

  He had taken

  such good care of her

  that she could still dig

  as much in a day

  as a hundred men

  could dig in a week;

  at least he thought she could

  but he wasn't quite sure.

  Everywhere they went

  the new gas shovels

  and the new electric shovels

  and the new Diesel motor shovels

  had all the jobs. No one wanted

  Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne any more.

  Then one day Mike read in a newspaper that the town

  of Popperville was going to build a new town hall.

  'We are going to dig the cellar of that town hall,'

  said Mike to Mary Anne, and off they started.

  They left the canals

  and the railroads

  and the highways

  and the airports

  and the big cities

  where no one wanted them any more

  and went away out in the country.

  They crawled along slowly

  up the hills and down the hills

  till they came to the little town

  of Popperville.

  When they got there they found that the selectmen

  were just deciding who should dig the cellar for the new town hall.

  Mike Mulligan spoke to Henry B. Swap, one of the selectmen.

  'I heard,' he said, 'that you are going

  to build a new town hall. Mary Anne and I

  will dig the cellar for you in just one day.'

  'What!' said Henry B. Swap. 'Dig a cellar in a day!

  It would take a hundred men at least a week

  to dig the cellar for our new town hall.'

  'Sure,' said Mike, 'but Mary Anne can dig as much in a day

  as a hundred men can dig in a week.'

  Though he had never been quite sure that this was true.

  Then he added,

  'If we can't do it, you won't have to pay.'

  Henry B. Swap thought that this would be

  an easy way to get part of the cellar dug for nothing,

  so he smiled in rather a mean way

  and gave the job of digging the cellar of the new town hall

  to Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne.

  They started in

  early the next morning

  just as the sun was coming up.

  Soon a little boy came along.

  'Do you think you will finish by sundown?'

  he said to Mike Mulligan.

  'Sure,' said Mike, 'if you stay and watch us.

  We always work faster and better

  when someone is watching us.'

  So the little boy stayed to watch.

  Then Mrs. McGillicuddy,

  Henry B. Swap,

  and the Town Constable

  came over to see

  what was happening,

  and they stayed to watch.

  Mike Mulligan

  and Mary Anne

  dug a little faster

  and a little better.

  This gave the little boy a good idea.

  He ran off and told the postman with the morning mail,

  the telegraph boy on his bicycle,

  the milkman with his cart and horse,

  the doctor on his way home,

  and the farmer and his family

  coming into town for the day,

  and they all stopped and stayed to watch.

  That made Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne

  dig a little faster and a little better.

  They finished the first corner

  neat and square...

  but the sun was getting higher.

  Clang! Clang! Clang!

  The Fire Department arrived.

  They had seen the smoke

  and thought there was a fire.

  Then the little boy said,

  'Why don't you stay and watch?'

  So the Fire Department of Popperville

  stayed to watch Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne.

  When they heard the fire engine, the children

  in the school across the street couldn't keep

  their eyes on their lessons. The teacher called

  a long recess and the whole school came out to watch.

  That made Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne

  dig still faster and still better.

  They finished the second corner neat and square,

  but the sun was right up in the top of the sky.

  Now the girl who answers

  the telephone called up the next towns

  of Bangerville and Bopperville and

  Kipperville and Kopperville and told them

  what was happening in Popperville.

  All the people came over to see

  if Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel

  could dig the cellar in just one day.

  The more people came, the faster

  Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne dug.

  But they would have to
hurry.

  They were only halfway through

  and the sun was beginning to go down.

  They finished the third corner ... neat and square.

  Never had Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne

  had so many people to watch them;

  never had they dug so fast and so well;

  and never had the sun seemed

  to go down so fast.

  'Hurry, Mike Mulligan!

  Hurry! Hurry!'

  shouted the little boy.

  'There's not much more time!'

  Dirt was flying everywhere,

  and the smoke and steam were so thick

  that the people could hardly see anything.

  But listen!

  BING! BANG! CRASH! SLAM!

  LOUDER AND LOUDER,

  FASTER AND

  FASTER.

  Then suddenly it was quiet.

  Slowly the dirt settled down.

  The smoke and steam cleared away,

  and there was the cellar

  all finished.

  Four corners ... neat and square;

  four walls ... straight down,

  and Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne at the bottom,

  and the sun was just going down behind the hill.

  'Hurray!' shouted the people. 'Hurray for Mike Mulligan

  and his steam shovel! They have dug the cellar in just one day.'

  Suddenly the little boy said,

  'How are they going to get out?'

  'That's right,' said Mrs. McGillicuddy

  to Henry B. Swap. 'How is he going

  to get his steam shovel out?'

  Henry B. Swap didn't answer,

  but he smiled in rather a mean way.

  Then everybody said,

  'How are they going to get out?

  'Hi! Mike Mulligan!