A bakery opens the story as the four children search for shelter and something to eat. They purchase loaves of bread and convince the baker’s wife to let them sleep on the store’s benches, but they overhear that the wife wants to capture them for servants and get rid of Benny. The bakery represents the false warmth and comfort of a world that will take advantage of them just because they’re small and weak. It’s their first lesson in independence: If they want to be safe, they must find their own safe place.

Searching for shelter during a downpour, Jessie finds an abandoned railroad boxcar deep in the woods. The kids furnish it with things they find at a nearby trash dump, and they turn it into a home. In its shelter, the four orphans discover they can take care of themselves.

When they unite with their grandfather and move into his large house, they miss the boxcar. He has the car brought to his backyard, where the kids can use it as a clubhouse. To the orphans, the boxcar represents family, safety, and a gathering place. It’s the symbolic center of their universe and continues that role during their further adventures in later books.