The Pastor’s Kids

This post is a summary of what happens in the chapters of The Pastor’s Kids. If you don’t like spoilers, don’t read it.

The book opens with the four Mikkelson kids, who have been left alone for the day, peering out into a snowy night, watching headlights come toward them, hoping to see their parents’ car. The little wind-swept town on the flat, North Dakota plains is fronted by twin elevators to store wheat and a railroad track. Mother and Dad do eventually return, bringing valentines and paper dolls, and the world rights itself.

A small, forlorn four-year-old, Paul is whisked into a contagion unit in a hospital when it is found he has polio. When he gets better, he goes to a rehabilitation unit far from home, though Mother can now visit him in the afternoons. Paul wants a better wheelchair so he can race with the other kids at night, but Dad says they are hoping he gets braces instead so he can walk.

Line, who is eight, sympathizes with kids who are less well off than she. She has little sympathy for her older sister Ellie, however. Line wishes she were the eldest, but she does dominate her little gang of Marty, a year younger, and Paul, who is finally home. At Christmas Mother has lots of ideas to make the house festive. Line learns that “the mills of God grind slowly.”

Marty wants to have the pretty clothes and buckle shoes of her friend Eileen, but also loves being outdoors. She understands Mother’s house decor of pussywillows rather than felt roses. At Eileen’s house at the train depot, she finds there is no plumbing! On a rainy vacation, Mother ends up reading many books to entertain the kids.

The whole school plays wild games together, including the high school kids. Line idolizes the leaders. The family goes to a basketball game, giving Line ample opportunity to watch her favorite cheerleader and the spirited leader of the basketball team.

Dad takes Paul on a visit to a family where he gives communion to an older Norwegian woman who is dying. As they drive home, they see a twister along the horizon. Dad is also trying to get Paul to study Morse code so he can work toward a hamm radio license, but Paul enjoys a wild game of cops and robbers with the neighbors more.

Marty puts her hand through a window when Line yells that a circus train is coming. Dad telephones a nearby nurse and makes a butterfly-shaped tape suture, as there is no nearby hospital. The kids are invited to tea at the home of a rich farmer near town. Marty finds it is not quite what she had imagined, but Line gets to ride the horse, just for the asking.

Renting a cabin from a friend, Dad introduces his family to a northern Minnesota lake where they fish and swim. Paul limps around without his brace, thinking lake life is paradise. Line leads Marty and Paul on an adventure to spy on the old man who owns a trolley car parked a little way down the lake coast. They are frightened, but no one is there and they do not get in trouble.

Marty is miserable when she has a fight with Line and the shoe she throws at Line breaks a window. She hides in a closet all day, but Mother and Dad are mild about it, thinking she has punished herself enough. Later she rhapsodizes over a sunrise as she eats toast on a fall morning.

Line goes to the Young Citizens League, anxious to distinguish herself, but she jumps in too early. The group advisor describes what being a citizen is, and how they are using Robert’s Rules of Order. One of Dad’s parishioners adopts three part-native American kids and Line, Marty and Paul go to their new ranch house to roller-skate in the basement.

Paul loves Davy Crockett when the kids are allowed to go to their neighbors to watch Disneyland on television. Dad leads a drum and bugle corps which marches out to the cemetery with the VFW on Memorial Day. Paul’s feet are contracting, however, and he sinks down in pain when they finally get there. Dad’s brother Marshall was killed in World War II, in 1945, only ten years before.

Line tries to hide in the car when Mother and Dad take Paul for surgery in the summer. She does not want to stay with her cousins, but this ruse doesn’t work. The girls mark time through the summer and go visit Paul in the hospital. He is in traction, wan and immovable, with a calendar on the wall marking the day when he will be free.

At Halloween the town gets the kids to collect money for UNICEF and puts on a big party at the church parish hall. Marty enjoys square dancing at school and believes that the country kids are smart in their own ways, though she and her friend Michael remain at the top of their class of nine. At New Year’s Eve, it is Marty’s birthday and Dad takes them to watch him ring the heavy church bell at midnight.

Paul envies Marty and Line who can climb up in the “big tree” at the back of the schoolyard. After a communion service, the pastor’s family is invited out to a farm for Sunday dinner. Paul knows already that he, the only boy in the family, is expected to be a pastor like Dad. He loves the farm and finds that Ellie is tall enough to boost him up into the “big tree.”

Television arrives in the Mikkelson household and the family watches on winter afternoons. Dad brings home ice skates and they all go skating on the pond. Mother, however, is pregnant, and in February, a new little sister is born.  Mother and Dad also announce that Dad has accepted a call to a new parish in northeast Iowa, throwing all the kids’ plans askew.

As the Mikkelsons prepare to leave Bryson, boxes pile up around the house. They forget Mother’s birthday, but the parish gives them a lavish party. Line, loathe to leave, sits with her cat, harrumphing that in her mind, animals do have souls. She hates hypocrisy and looks for goodness deep in people.

The Mikkelsons stop at each of their grandmother’s houses as they make their way across Minnesota and have a makeup birthday celebration for Mother. Marty compares her grandmothers, both Norwegian, but with different values. Arriving in their new town, Marty is mesmerized by its beauty, nestled into the hills.

When Line and Marty start junior high, Line is thrilled by the idea of girls basketball and its coach. She can’t figure out what’s eating Paul or why Ellie seems happy. Marty becomes a cheerleader, but she is struggling also.

Summer is blissful for Paul, however. He loves the garden, a nearby creek and he doesn’t have to have surgery. At school the boys ran away and left Paul, as he couldn’t run. It hurts, as he is a sociable kid. But Marty introduced him to science fiction. At a fair at the end of the summer, Line, Marty and Paul love the acrobats and also see Ellie on the Ferris wheel with a boy.

Marty wants a crinoline like the other girls, but Mother wavers about letting her have one. She’s not athletic so sticks with the less popular girls. Her math teacher requests her help checking tests, however. She also begins a notebook, telling her troubles to an imaginary friend, Anna Frank.

Paul’s last surgery is really tough. He wakes up in more pain than he thought possible. Mother stays with him and then Line, who brings a radio so they can listen to baseball games, the Minnesota Millers playing a Cuban team! The doctors tell Paul that they have now done all they can for his legs. The rest is up to him. He tells Line and Marty his real love is wilderness.

One day the Mikkelsons come home to a “pounding” in which the congregation has gifted them with a lot of food, especially mounds of sweet corn. Mother organizes everyone into a processing team resulting in most of the corn going into the freezer for the winter. The whole family takes Ellie up to college and Line is thrilled by the idea that it will soon be her turn.

Marty practices with the high school marching band for half time during a football game. She also sings harmony with Line and Paul for church functions. Dad and Mother share their hopes for their kids when they hear from Ellie that she is unhappy at college. On a Luther League hayride and bonfire, Dad brings everyone together through song.

Dad brings home a Sheltie dog, which Paul immediately bonds with, calling her Foxy. Ellie comes home at Christmas and marries her boyfriend Bruce in a quiet family ceremony, leaving college at the end of the semester. When the family watches “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” Paul tries to prepare, but breaks down in any case.

Line babysits for some hungry kids, coming home to tell Mother about it. She also goes to a baby shower for a friend who has dropped out of school at 16. She tries to write a speech for her speech club. Her teacher tells her to put more of herself into it, and applauds the result.

The Mikkelsons go up to the lake in Minnesota where Mother’s brother is building a cabin. It is a pristine little lake made when the glaciers retreated. Line works on drawing. Marty takes care of Kristen and plays with forbidden cards. Paul helps his cousins build a treehouse. Mother is once again pregnant, helping cook for the family. The sky over the water is full of stars. The peace of the wilderness envelops them, along with the warmth of extended family.