Springtime à la Carte (Henry)
Short Summary
New York City, presumably early 1900s. Sarah, a sensitive and emotional young woman, struggled to make a living typing restaurant menus. Each day she typed menu cards for a local restaurant, Schulenberg's, receiving her meals in exchange.
Sarah was deeply in love with a determined and resourceful modern farmer named Walter Franklin, whom she had met the previous summer. Walter had promised to marry her at the first signs of spring, but weeks went by without letters from him, leaving Sarah anxious and unhappy.
One day, typing the restaurant's menu, Sarah found herself weeping in sorrow as she reached the vegetables: dandelions. She associated these flowers with her romance with Walter. Lost in emotion, Sarah mistakenly typed a personal message into the menu, writing,
Between the red cabbage and the stuffed green peppers was the item: 'DEAREST WALTER, WITH HARD-BOILED EGG.'
Coincidentally, Walter visited Schulenberg's that evening, recognized Sarah's distinctive typing, and eagerly sought her out. Reunited at last, they joyfully renewed their plans for marriage.
Detailed Summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
Sarah's Situation and Agreement with Schulenberg
Sarah was crying over her bill of fare, an unusual sight for a New York girl. She was a free-lance typewriter who canvassed for odd jobs of copying, as she lacked shorthand skills to enter office work. Her most successful achievement was an arrangement with Schulenberg's Home Restaurant, located next door to her building.
After dining at Schulenberg's one evening, Sarah had taken the poorly written menu home and returned the next day with a beautifully typewritten version. Schulenberg was delighted with her work and immediately agreed to her proposal: she would provide neatly typewritten menus for all twenty-one tables in the restaurant, and in return, he would send her three meals daily and provide her with draft menus to type.
Sarah's Love for Walter and the Coming of Spring
Despite the calendar's insistence that spring had arrived, winter still gripped the city. The streets remained frozen, and steam heat was being shut off in buildings. Sarah sat in her small room, looking out the window at the brick wall of the box factory next door.
Sarah's room was at the back of the house. Looking out the window she could see the windowless rear brick wall of the box factory on the next street. But the wall was clearest crystal; and Sarah was looking down a grassy lane.
In her mind, Sarah was transported to the countryside where she had spent two weeks the previous summer at Sunnybrook Farm. There she had fallen in love with Walter Franklin, the farmer's son. He was a modern agriculturist who used technology in his farming and could calculate crop yields with precision.
Walter had courted Sarah in a shaded lane bordered with raspberry bushes. He had woven a crown of dandelions for her hair, praising how the yellow flowers complemented her brown tresses. They had promised to marry at the first signs of spring, and Sarah had returned to the city to work at her typewriter.
They were to marry in the spring--at the very first signs of spring, Walter said. And Sarah came back to the city to pound her typewriter. A knock at the door dispelled Sarah's visions of that happy day.
The Dandelion Menu and Walter's Return
A knock at the door interrupted Sarah's daydreaming. A waiter had brought the pencil draft of the next day's menu from Schulenberg. Sarah began typing the cards, noting that the menu reflected the changing season – lighter soups, less pork, and more emphasis on spring dishes.
As she worked through the menu items, Sarah suddenly burst into tears. The next item on the menu was dandelions – the very flowers with which Walter had crowned her during their courtship. She had not received a letter from him in two weeks, and seeing dandelions listed as a vegetable dish rather than the romantic symbol she cherished was too much to bear.
But, still in a faint, golden glow from her dandeleonine dream, she fingered the typewriter keys absently for a little while, with her mind and heart in the meadow lane with her young farmer.
Despite her distress, Sarah completed the menu cards and sent them back with the waiter who brought her dinner. When her meal arrived, she set aside the dish of dandelions, unable to eat what had once been a symbol of her love. At 7:30, she began reading a book to distract herself.
Suddenly, the front door bell rang. The landlady answered it, and Sarah rushed to her door, abandoning her book. She reached the top of the stairs just as Walter bounded up, taking three steps at a time, and embraced her.
Sarah asked why he hadn't written, and Walter explained that he had come to her old address a week ago and had been searching for her ever since. When she insisted she had written to him, he revealed how he had found her: he had visited Schulenberg's restaurant that evening, looking for spring greens on the menu. When he spotted something unusual below the cabbage listing, he asked the proprietor about it.
Walter pulled out the menu and showed Sarah what she had typed. In her emotional state, thinking of dandelions and her beloved Walter, her fingers had struck the wrong keys. Instead of typing "dandelions with hard-boiled egg," she had typed "DEAREST WALTER, WITH HARD-BOILED EGG." Her unconscious message of love had led him straight to her door.