RUNAWAY TO GLORY

Sven thought that Grandpa was a wonderful man and Grandpa thought that Sven was a wonderful boy. It was nice that they had each other because both were a little disengaged from the family circle, Sven by youthful irresponsibility and Grandpa by increasing age and frailty. Grandpa's need for respectful attention on the big and busy farm in turn of the century Minnesota drove him into a talkiness that was hard on the family who had heard all his stories of the Civil War too many times to stop and listen. Sven's concern for the old soldier's pride is moving without being over-sentimental, in what is also an amusing action/adventure story. The two set out by buggy to do an essential errand for the farm and none of the family quite trust them to accomplish it on schedule. They really did very well during a day filled with incidental pleasures, like their first ride in an automobile. But on the way home, a frightened team and a cast horseshoe put them right in the way of two bank robbers. How they foiled the thugs, and how Sven won Grandpa respectful recognition on Memorial Day, makes a good story with a thoughtful message about the relationship of younger people to older people.