The Big Green Umbrella

If ever one needed an umbrella, it was Monday.  Rain ALL day long.  Madeleine loves the rain and I love it too, but only for a day or so, then I start to miss the sun.  But Monday was a perfect rainy day- just a steady stream that dripped from our gutters and tiptoed across the roof.  Inside the house it was dark so we had to switch on lamps and since our furniture is old (and mostly flea market/trash-picked) the damp weather always bring out a slightly musty smell (which I actually don't mind so much). 

 

The Big Green Umbrella

Elizabeth Coatsworth

pictures by Helen Sewell 1944

Charlotte wasn't into this book as much as I was.  I loved the story.  The Thomas family lives in Delaware in the 1800s and are known by their big green umbrella.  It can keep their whole family dry on rainy days as they walk to church or along the River.  "But one day the umbrella seemed to grow tired of its life in Newcastle," and it decided to fly away on the wind.

Goodness knows what thoughts the umbrella had been thinking during all the long hours behind the door!  But when the moment came, the umbrella acted!

It ends up aboard a clipper ship bound for China.  And then it passes into the hands of Peach Blossom, a Chinese merchant's daughter.  The story ends with the umbrella eventually being returned to the surprised Thomas family.