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Dorothea Graham Jensen
a book bubble about
A Buss from Lafayette
Teens
Author Insight
Yup,”riddle" still used. . .
In my first novel for young readers, THE RIDDLE OF PENNCROFT FARM, I employed several different meanings of the word RIDDLE. The main one was,, of course, the antique farm implement which was a coarse sieve used for winnowing grain in “olden times.” (The main character finds in the barn and it proves to be a vital clue to an important mystery later in the book.). I thought that the only remnant of this meaning was in the verb “riddled” as with bullets, meaning fully of small holes (like a sieve). When I moved into an antique house, however, I discovered that a recent owner had installed a coal fire burner in one of the fireplaces. In order to shake down the ashes, there was actually a built in sieve, called a riddle. (This was after the publishing of my story with Riddle in the title.) I deliberately used it in A BUSS FROM LAFAYETTE as a tiny homage to my previous work.
Book Excerpt
A Buss from Lafayette
Just then Joss came into the kitchen, lugging two large buckets, one empty and the other full of charcoal. With a frown on his face, he set down the bucket, and then reached around me to open the door to the firebox under the pot I was stirring. He shook the riddle so the ashes fell down beneath, then carefully scooped them into the empty bucket with a metal shovel. He took fresh charcoal from the other bucket and added it to the firebox. Then he did the same to the firebox under Prissy’s pot.
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