Marguerite Henry was 60 years old when she set down the story of "Five O'Clock Charlie" in 1962. It's a true story about a farm horse - but then, Henry had already written more than 40 children's books that were based on real animals. Her high profile meant her books earned top-notch illustrations, like the ones provided for this book by Wesley Dennis. Some of his drawings are black and white - but there's also some grand color pages that make the story come to life.
"Charlie was a big old work horse with sad brown eyes..." writes Henry. Charlie's a British farm horse who belongs to "a lean, weathered man with a fringe of yellow whiskers," and he's already 28 years old. There's a beautiful drawing of the horse frolicking in a green meadow under a perfect children's-book illustration of a cloudy blue sky. But soon Charlie is relegated to a thistle-filled field, where he "grew hungry and bored with life."
It's a story and an allegory, as the 60-year-old writer imagines that Charlie misses his younger days of pulling the farmers wagon. But there's a wonderful detail about what Charlie missed most of all - the exciting visits to the Boar's Head Inn, where "a plump-chested cook" named Birdie would bounce out to ring a bell every afternoon. "Quick as flies the people would come swarming...teamsters and tailors, carpenters and cobblers..." They all wanted one of Birdie's fresh apple tarts, and at the end of the afternoon, Birdie feeds one to the horse, a tart "oozing with juices that smelled of sugar and spices."
Charlie's relegated to "a world of nothing but weeds and sky," but suddenly the time-clock in his mind hears the same bell." It's a delightful moment, when the horse trots down the lane and surprises Birdie at the inn, who gives him "the biggest, brownest, juiciest tart of all." And in the days to come, Charlie repeats his visit, becoming the horse who reminds Birdie when it's time to ring the bell. And it becomes a great story when it takes a surprising turn. Birdie teaches Charlie how to tug the bell rope himself!
Charlie's owner makes a cameo at the end, but it's only to wink and pretend that he doesn't see the wayward horse. And Marguerite Henry gives him the final page to show the real affection that develops between humans and animals. To keep the horse from leaving the field, the farmer's wife keeps urging her husband to fix the fence's top rail.
"But he never did."