I have been thinking about this book a lot lately. No idea of the title.
The story (fiction) was about a young child (girl? boy?) who went on a train ride with someone? something? else, and was offered some jam — or marmalade — to try. However, the young child did not have any utensil to use to dip into the marmalade. This is the part that has stuck with me to this day: the companion gave the advice to the child “…always keep a spoon with you, because you never know when someone will offer you something to try” — or words to that effect.
This advice made a major impression on my young mind, and to this day I always carry a metal spoon with me.
I would love to read this story again. Would you help me find it?
Maybe Beyond the PawPaw Trees, by Palmer Brown? Anna Lavinia is on a train, and a woman offers her (I think) strawberry jam. I don’t remember the spoon, but it’s interesting how people remember different things from their favorite books!
I managed to obtain a copy of “Beyond the Pawpaw Trees” through Inter-library loan today, and read it straight through this afternoon. Unfortunately, no, this is not the story of which I am thinking — although, curiously, the drawings seem very familiar to me, so I must have read it as a child anyway. However, the woman in the train does not offer jam to the child to try. “Strawberry” in the story is the girl’s cat.
So, I am still looking….still open for suggestions. Thank you so much, Kelly W., for your suggestion.