Gardener Children illustrations

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+JMJ+

I was looking at some old drawings on my computer and found some drawings Rosie did for my first Gardener Children book. She did them at least four years ago. The cover is a couple years newer then the rest of the drawings.

So the story line was that Mr. Jack Gardener decided that his house was to small for himself, his wife and twenty-one children. (This was based off a game I played with paper dolls. I already trimmed down the family considerably just to get to twenty-one. We easily used fifty to a hundred paper dolls per family. We made them all ourselves, either copied, traced or drew. Or cut up coloring books)

Anyway, back to the story, or I'll see if I can remember it all.

The family was divided into age groups. The oldest kids were called the Giants, the second oldest group were called Terrorists, then the Spiders, Midgets and last of all Miserable Hobbits.

(Warning: I wrote this years ago so any quotes are probably really bad)

Scene: Samuel (who was standing in the door) started to gibe a vivid description of a fight between Joe and David.

“Oh look!” he cried, “Joe gave David a splendid kick in the shin! Oh boy, oh lovely keep it up Joe” by no means did these particular words mean Samuel want Joe to win the fight, Samuel just loved a good fight liked any boy and always praised a extra good kick of punch if he was vary excited he would even praise a poor shot.

“That's my soap!" David screamed at Joe giving him a beautiful black eye,

“It's not your soap it's my soap.” Joe yelled and punched David in the nose.

Scene: “I'm looking for a house to purchase.” Andrew managed to blurt out,

“Come this way!” the mayor answered, in a more friendly voice, then he led the way into a small office. “Do sit down!” he said almost polity, “My name is Andrew Moffot, and you are?” he extended his hand,

“Gardener, Andrew Gardener.” Andrew answered calmly, then he sat down. Mr Moffot went over to a file cabinet and begin digging around in one of the drawers.
“How many people are planning on living in the house?” He asked,

“Let me see, um....Oh twenty three!”

“TWENTY THREE????” Mr Moffot yelped, “How many are adults?” 

Scene: “Is there a party going on down here?” James snapped irritably, as Andrew turned the corner and he gasped. He didn't have time to brake, before he would hit the little boy, who was sitting in the middle of the road. Not a second too soon Andrew yanked the wheel hard to the right, the car shot off the road and with a sickening crunch went right through the white fence that ran along the road. For a second the three Gardener's could only sit with frozen smile's on their faces, then Philip said,

“Well it was right generous of the mayor to let us borrow his car, but he won't thank us for smashing it!”

“And the owner of this once lovely fence won't thank us either!” James moaned dismally Andrew flung the door open and started to get out,

Scene: Gorgie, Katylin, and Benny were simply tossing toys, books and games all over the place. At least Gorgie and Benny were, Katylin was digging through the rag bags and sewing bags for no apparent reason. Benny tired of throwing things began to scribble on the wall, he was only three after all, Mrs Gardener, who was trying to fix lunch, saw him doing it and yelled angrily,

“Benny drop those markers right now!” Benny looked at her angelically.

“Mom,” He said innocently, “you don't like me dropping stuff on floors.”

Scene: Andrew took a ancient, rusty key out of his pocket, and preceded to unlock the great iron gates.

“Those kids are still watching us.” Philip complained,

“Do you have a problem with that?” Andrew asked, trough gritted teeth, his nerves had been shattered by the near tragedy on the road. Philip decided not to say anymore, well James took out his smart phone and sent a quick text to Peter. Then he raced after his brothers, who were walking up the gravel drive to the house or mansion, the gardens would have been beautiful if they weren't so choked with weeds. Upon reaching the enormous front doors, Andrew took out a huge ring of key, and attempted to unlock the door, after trying them all about two or three times, he gave up in disgust.

“Apparently, Andy Mayoress gave us the wrong bunch of keys.” He muttered bitterly, 

Scene: Sometime later, every single passenger was jerked to attention, including Anthony, by the sound of Samuel's laptop turned up full blast.

“Not a donkey he-haw-he-haw.” Boomed through the train, everyone turned this way and that, and tried to discover where the noise was coming from, finely they pinpointed Samuel.

“Hay, you kid, turn that noise down!” The man sitting behind Samuel snapped,

“Yeah kid, I'm trying to sleep!”

“Don't you have any common sense?”

“Samuel Gardener's a pest, a pest, a pest.” these last words came from Alex Mitchel, and they did the trick, Samuel slammed the lid down and screamed even louder then the video had been.

“I'm NOT a Pest, your a pest!” Anthony leaned over and all but choked Samuel, 

(Points if you know what book the donkey quote came from)

Scene: He shrugged his shoulders, and prepared to leave the station, when two strangers walked up to him, one was about sixteen, with dark hair, the other was about nine, with blond hair.

“Excuse me,” The older one said, “but would you have any idea where the newly purchased Gardener house is?” Francisco hesitated, then said slowly,

“Someone bought the place across the road from where I live, perhaps that's the place.” 

Scene: just then Daniel, and Jerry Moffet walked out of the house accompanied by Alex Mitchel. Upon realizing he was older then both the strange children, Jerry put on a superior look, acting as if he was much older, when he in reality he was only thirteen, a year older then Alice, and said,

“Hello children, where is your mother? Surly you shouldn't leave her, and wonder around the streets by yourself.”

“Oh we signed up for a school field trip, that was going to a park near here, then we hitched hiked the rest of the way.” Alice said sweetly,

Scene: Samuel fled out of the house, certain that the horrible white figure was still perusing,

“Anthony,” he screamed “help, help Anthony.” he fled over to the neighbors hose still screaming, Anthony, Francisco, Jim and a dark haired boy, whom Samuel didn't know came running out from behind the Wilder's house.

“What in the name of wonders is the matter?” Anthony yelled,

“Ghost, ghost.” Samuel screamed “It's trying to kill me.”

“Is this the crazy brother you were telling me about?” the dark haired boy asked with an evil grin on his face, 

Scene: Samuel crept through the semi dark entry towards the door at the other end, he reached the door opened it and yelled,

“Anthony? Andrew?” he paused and listened, their was no answer, “Philip, James?” he yelled after a long silence.

“Yes?” Samuel whirled, the two Wilder boys were looking straight at him,

“Don't tell me,” Samuel moaned, “your twins, and your names are Philip and James?” the two boys nodded, Samuel groaned, then shrugged, “Come on lets go find our brothers!” the three of them raced out of the entry way and found themselves in a dark hall.

“Whoa it's dark in here.” Philip complained, or maybe it was James, 

Scene: Suddenly Benny cried,

“Oh lookie, a big red truck, and Samuel wif a police mans!” Mrs Gardener forgot all about the helicopter, her husband was already on his way.

“Stay with the kids Alice!” He ordered firmly, then he hurried through the iron gates, he found Philip in a fireman volunteer outfit, Andrew standing with Alice and Stephen, James with a bandaged hand, Anthony with an extremely dirty, sooty face. All the spiders hanging around a police car, their was also a dozen other people that Mr Gardener didn't know.

Last Sentence: “The New House is ours at last.” He said thoughtfully.

The End

God Bless You All,

The Author