Along Way From Chicago

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Along Way From Chicago

• Author Richard Peck
• By Whitney McConnell

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Chapter 1 Shotgun Cheathams Last Night Above
Ground

• There was a word going town about Shotgun
  Cheathams death. A reporter was going around
  asking people what they knew about this. Then a
  lady named Effie Wilcox opened her mouth about
  Mrs. Dowdel ( grandma). Grandma knew everything
  about Shotgun and later on the reporter went to
  her house. He started asking her questions and
  she didnt like that at all. So she started
  telling a bunches of lies. Then Grandma invited
  the reporter and everybody else to come to her
  house because she was going to be having open
  house for Shotgun. That night the reporter was
  sitting with grandma and grandma pulled a trick
  and made the coffin move. The reporter jumped out
  of the window and never came back.

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Chapter 2 Mouse in the Milk

• Grandma has milk delivered to her house every
  day. The people that deliver it is the Cowgills.
  They are boys that tear up everything Grandma
  has. She doesnt like them at all. Since they
  blew up her mailbox she wanted to get them back.
  The next day when the Cowgills delivered the milk
  Grandma said I hope this batch is better than
  the one yesterday because I found a dead rat in
  the milk. He look at her like she was crazy and
  then he tried to argue with her and she said you
  better watch it. So next morning Grandma had set
  a trap because she does have rats come in her
  house and that morning she had caught one. She
  walked over to an empty bottle and drop the rat
  right in, then she got a bottle of fresh milk
  from the morning delivery and poured the milk in
  over the mouse. The mouse was floating in the
  milk. Grandma wanted to get them in trouble so
  she went and told their parents and everybody
  else. They all had to go to the church/court to
  figure out what really happened.

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Chapter 3 One-Woman Crime Wave

• One day Grandma wanted some catfish so she
  decided she would go get her some. She didnt
  have a boat or anything to go fishing with but
  she was going to find away to go. So she stole a
  boat from somebody's yard, she didnt even care
  if anybody was watching she just went up and took
  it. Then she had to have somewhere to fish so she
  went and trespassed on private land and went
  fishing. She wasnt worried not one bit about
  getting caught. Next minute she realized she was
  going down hill into a creek. It didnt phased
  her at all she kept going till she saw necked men
  in the creek. I was the sheriff and a couple of
  other men. They were all drunk so they had no
  idea what was going till she passed them and then
  the sheriff yelled hey thats my boat stop them.
  Grandma didnt even care she kept rowing like
  nothing was going on because she knew that they
  couldnt get her. So on and on she went and
  finally she just pulled the boat on the side and
  got out. Took her catfish and went home, and she
  never got caught.

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Chapter 4 The Day of Judgment

• Grandma was going to enter her famous
  gooseberry pie into the county fair. She needed a
  whole bushes worth of gooseberrys, she also
  needed a twenty-five pound bag of sugar. They
  were all in the kitchen rolling out dough for the
  pie crust. They tried and tried but it was either
  to sweet, to sour, or not fully cooked. They
  tried a few more times and then they finally come
  out with the right pie. They took the pie to
  domestic science tent to get it registered. Once
  they got it registered they walked down to their
  tabled and while they were getting set up Grandma
  was checking out the competition. She noticed a
  gooseberry pie on the table next to hers. When
  the judges came around they tasted Grandmas pie
  and then the next pies. When they started to give
  out ribbons Grandma got 2nd place. When she saw
  the sign free plane rides for 1st place winners
  she took the blue ribbon off her hat and crumpled
  it up in her hand and showed the pilot a piece of
  it and she got to ride, then Joey.

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Chapter 5 The Phantom Brakeman

• Mary Alice and Joey meet this girl named
  Vandalia Eubanks and she is her mothers jailer.
  Her mother takes her money that she makes at work
  and treats her like a slave when shes at home.
  Mary Alice feels bad for her and she sneaks her
  into Grandmas house without her knowing. One
  night Joey heard something coming from Mary
  Alices room. He went to see what it was, when he
  got to the door he asked Mary Alice if someone
  was in there. She told him that a puppy had
  followed her out of the cob house and she just
  had to keep him. A couple days later Vandalias
  mother showed up at the door because she had
  heard her daughter was hiding inside Grandmas
  house. She told her she was not getting into her
  house. So Miz ( Vandalia Eubanks mother) went a
  got a ladder and tried to get into Mrs. Dowdels
  house. Then later on Joey ran into this boy named
  Junior that was madly in love with Vandalia.
  Junior heard about Vandalia being in Grandmas
  house so he gave Joey a note to give to her. Then
  Juniors parents showed up at Grandmas house to
  see if she would tell Vandalia that Junior wasnt
  right for her. While they were there Grandma
  heard a real loud noise that got her attention.
  She ran to the back of the house and saw Miz
  trying to get into the house, Grandma pulled the
  ladder out from under her. Miz and the window
  screen fell straight to the ground. Once Juniors
  parents heard that they left. That night Vandalia
  went to meet Junior at the cobhouse and once she
  got there they ran off together.

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Chapter 6 Things With Wings

• When Mary Alice and Joey were getting off the
  train Grandma was there but she wasnt there to
  get them. She was there because Effie Wilcox was
  getting on the train and leaving. Joey asked
  Grandma if Effie was going on a vacation and she
  said no she is gone for good. Effie went to stay
  with her sister because the bank was kicking her
  out of her house. She wasnt paying her payments.
  She wanted to leave early because she didnt want
  to see them throwing her stuff in the road.
  Anyways later that week Grandma needed some stuff
  from the attic because her church was having a
  church sell and Mary Alice and Joey had to get up
  there. They asked what they were looking for and
  she just said anything you can find. So when they
  got done with that they went to the church sell
  and they brought a stovepipe hat that had the
  initials M.T.L on it. Mrs. Weidenbach was so
  happy because she thought it was Mary Todd
  Lincolns and she said she had already had Abe
  Lincolns own stovepipe hat. So she offered
  Grandma 15 dollars to get the hat but then the
  quilt that grandma had, had the same initials on
  it. That meant that she had to have it too.
  After that Grandma made a deal that if she told
  everybody that the hat is not Mary Todds she
  went to the bank and convinced them to give Effie
  Wilcox her house back. Grandma also convinced
  them to give Mary Alice and Joey 2 dollars each.
  Joey spent his on driving lessons and Mary Alice
  saved hers.

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Chapter 7 Centennial Summer

• This was the last time that Joey and Mary Alice
  went down to Grandmas. While they were there a
  festival was going on and grandma took them to
  it. There also was a talent show going on and
  Grandma asked Mary Alice where her tap shoes were
  and she said she doesnt do that anymore. Now she
  does ballroom dancing because she is getting
  ready for high school. So anyways they went to
  the talent show and Grandma and Joey didnt know
  she was going to do it. Till the next dancers
  that came up there were gorgeous. There was this
  beautiful girl with a long white gown on and then
  there was this big hands, dark skin, tall man
  wearing a tuxedo. They scooted around the floor
  very gracefully. Grandma and Joey had no idea it
  was Mary Alice till her hair moved out of the
  way. They were so shocked to see her doing that.
  When they got done the crowd went wild everybody
  was cheering and yelling. Then they went to see
  uncle Grady because he was competing in the
  oldest veteran contest. Which uncle Grady is 103,
  so he won that contest. Also one guy thought
  Uncle Grady was lying so Uncle Grady beat him up.
  So everything turned out good because Mary Alice
  got first in the talent show and a 103 old man
  beat up a guy and won the oldest veteran contest!
  

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Chapter 8 Troop Train

• Mary Alice and Joey were growing up and they
  were getting jobs. Mary Alice was still in school
  and Joey had joined the army to be an air force
  pilot. He had to ride on a train to go to the war
  and it would be passing Grandmas house. So Joey
  telegraphed Grandma and told her that he would be
  riding by in a few hours. When he rode by every
  light in her house was on and she was at the
  screen door waving and Joey just waved back.

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• The
• End