Tuck Everlasting

On the same day, a sullen Winnie sits in her fenced-in front yard and tells her troubles to a toad across the road. She is tired of everyone in her family nagging and attending her all the time and thinks she might just run away. She’s not sure what she’d do but considers it should be “something that would make some kind of difference in the world” (17). Her mother calls through an open window. The toad hops away, and Winnie goes inside.

At sunset that day, Winnie is in the yard catching fireflies when a stranger comes to the gate. He is an older, unremarkable gentleman, except for his yellow suit which “seemed to glow a little in the fading light” (19). Winnie’s grandmother comes out to ask what the man wants, but he doesn’t answer.

Suddenly, a tinkling melody comes from the wood, stopping after a moment. Winnie’s grandmother is excited because she believes the elves have returned, but Winnie thinks the song sounds like a music box. She and her grandmother go inside, leaving the man to stare at the wood. A while later, he walks away, whistling “the tinkling little melody from the wood” (23).