Orphan Train: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

The unnamed narrator (Vivian) is with her neighbors, a childless German couple called the Schatzmans, a couple days “after the fire.” Mr. Schatzman wakes her to announce his plans to take her to the Children’s Aid Society. The narrator wants to wait for her Mam, who was taken away screaming, but he explains her mother “isn’t coming back.” Mr. Schatzman also says that the narrator’s sister, Maisie, “didn’t make it.” The girl is grief-stricken. The night before, she was stung to hear Mrs. Schatzman through the walls saying, “I didn’t ask for this.” The narrator then remembers the night of the fire – her Da and brothers’ bodies in the hallway, Maisie and her Mam taken away by medics. She thinks of relatives in Ireland who could take her, but realizes there is no way of getting in contact with them or paying the ship fare. The narrator realizes that she is completely alone – “a burden to society, and nobody’s responsibility.”

At the Children’s Aid Society, an unhappy middle-aged woman grooms and lectures the narrator. She warns her that people will judge her harshly because she is Irish. So that she will be accepted, the matron advises her to keep her red hair pinned back and to behave very well. She also reminds her that some women won’t like having a girl in the house who is “too comely.” She and another matron try to tell her that she can’t bring her claddagh cross necklace onto “the train” because the children “aren’t allowed keepsakes.” The narrator tells them it is all she has left of her family, both because it’s true and because she “thinks it will sway them,” which it does.

The narrator is huddled onto a train platform along with dozens of other children. She wears a stiff pinafore that, along with her small suitcase of clothing, was given to her by the Children’s Aid Society. The volunteer who sewed her name onto her clothes scoffed at its foreign lettering. The narrator then reveals her name: Niamh (pronounced “Neev”) Power. The volunteer disdainfully told Niamh that her new family would surely change her name. Niamh explains that nobody “feels sorry” for her, because all the other children around her have also lost their families. The Children’s Aid workers focus on preparing them to begin their new lives, treating them as if they were “born the moment” they were placed in their care. As they board the train, the matron in charge, Mrs. Scatcherd, charges Niamh with taking care of a fourteen-month-old baby, Carmine.

On the train, Mrs. Scatcherd makes a speech. She opens by saying, “They call this an orphan train.” She explains that they are leaving depraved backgrounds for new families and the “nobility of the country.” She warns them to behave well, or else they will be sent back to the city. Niamh is settled with Carmine, who cries from hunger. She feeds him sugar lumps that she pocketed from her meager breakfast, and he falls asleep in her lap. Mr. Curran, the other attendant, provides them each with lunch and blankets. Niamh wants to feel optimistic, but she knows promises don’t always “match with reality.” She longingly remembers her home and family in Kinvara. Caring for Carmine both comforts and pains her, reminding her of Maisie. She thinks of other, larger immigrant families in her New York tenement, and wonders if her parents would have fared better with more social support.