TRC's Theme #1: Kindness

Based on the novel “The Railway Children” that was written by Edith Nesbit, I came across many different themes. One of them is kindness. There are many acts of kindness which could be found in this story. The children were kind to everyone and there were others who were also kind to the children.
First of all, we could hit upon this theme in Chapter 2 of the novel, Peter And The Coal. One day, the rains came. Although it was cold, Mother said they couldn’t light a fire as coal was expensive. Peter had an idea and two nights later, he asked the girls to help him. They went to the hill just above the station where there were big stones in the grass. Between the stones, there was coal. The girls helped Peter carry it to their house and told nobody about it. Later, the Station Master was waiting for Peter in the station yard. He saw Peter take the coal to fill a bag. He shouted at Peter and grabbed his coat. When he told Peter he was taking him to the station, Phyllis and Bobbie stepped out. Bobbie told the Station Master that they were also involved. They had known where Peter was getting the coal from. The Station Master recognized them and asked them why they were stealing coal. Peter told him that they wanted to have a fire and was about to say more when Bobbie stopped him. The Station Master was silent for a while and then told them he would let them go this time. He said taking a coal from the middle of the pile was still stealing and the children knew he was right.  I think that the Station Master was kind enough to forgive Peter when he stole the coal and was even kinder when he told Peter to forget the whole incident and to drop by the station whenever he pleased afterwards.
After that, this them can also be discovered in Chapter 6, A Birthday for Perks. One morning, Mother told the children that she had sold another story so they could have cakes for tea. The children asked if they could have it on Thursday instead as it was Perks’ birthday. Mother agreed but Bobbie thought that cakes alone weren’t exciting. So the children decided to ask others in the village if they wanted to give Perks presents as well. Some people were kind, but Mrs. Ransome did not want to give anything for Perks as it was her birthday the next day and no one would remember so she did not see why she should bother with Perks’. The next morning, the children put some roses and one of Bobbie’s prettiest handkerchiefs with a note explaining it was for Mrs. Ransome for her birthday. They took the box to the Post Office and left it at the door when the old lady wasn’t looking. Thursday came and the children went to fetch the items that the other villagers had promised. Mrs. Ransome was standing outside when the children passed by. She thanked the children for the gifts and gave them back their box, now filled with apples. She also gave them a pram which was a gift for her grandchild but the child had unfortunately died after 6 months. The children placed the presents in the pram and pushed it to the Perks’ house. Mrs. Perks was surprised to see them and the presents. She told them that Perks had never had a birthday like that. The cakes and presents were put on the table and then the children hid in another room. They wanted to surprise Perks. From this chapter, the children were good and kind to Perks and organized a birthday party for him with the help of the villagers.
Later on, this theme could be learnt in Chapter 8, The Boy in The Red Shirt. One morning, Bobbie told the others that the boys from a school nearby were going to have a paper-chase that day and suggested that they go and watch. The children waited at the railway line and soon, the first boy, the ‘hare’, appeared. The rest of the boys, the ‘hounds’, were supposed to chase the hare. The hare had a bag containing pieces of paper which he dropped for the others to follow. He quickly ran into the tunnel. Then, the hounds appeared and they followed the paper trail into the tunnel. The children decided to go across the top of the hill to see the boys come out at the other end of the tunnel. After a while, they spotted the hare coming out of the tunnel with hounds following shortly behind. Peter remarked that the last hound in the red shirt had not come out yet so the children waited to see him. When he did not appear after a while, the children got worried. Peter thought he might have had an accident so they decided to check. Soon after, they found the boy in the red shirt on the ground beside the line. The boy tried to walk but the pain was too bad. Then, he sat down on the ground and closed his eyes. Bobbie told Peter and Phyllis to get help while she stayed with the boy. When the boy woke up, Bobbie introduced herself and he told her his name was Jim. Peter and Phyllis went to a farm and asked for help. Bobbie suggested taking him to their house so a doctor could look at him first. At the house, Mother called Dr. Forrest and sent a message to Jim’s school and his grandfather. I assume that Mother was also kind to Jim and was willing to house him and nurse his injury later.
As a conclusion, I believe that kindness is one of the most important themes in this novel. This is because by being kind, people would respect us more and they would also help us no matter what kind of situations we are in.