Tuck Everlasting Prologue: The story starts on a hot August day, and we learn three things: Mae Tuck

is going to see her two sons; Winnie Foster is thinking of running away from home; and a stranger comes to the Fosters' house. Chapter 1: Nothing much happens in this chapter. The narrator just tells us about the setting of the coming story. She talks a little of the houses out in the countryside and she describes the nearby Treegap wood. The wood belongs to the Foster family, but nobody goes there, including Winnie Foster, the daughter of the Foster family. Not even the cows that have to make a detour to get to their pastures have seen inside the wood. The narrator tells us it is good that people don't know the secret of the wood, because if they did, it would be a disaster for the whole world! Chapter 2: Mae Tuck wakes up on a hot sunny morning. She feels happy because her sons are coming back the next day. She hasn't seen them for 10 years. Her husband is not in such a good mood and is worried when Mae says she is going out to meet the boys. As she gets dressed ready to leave, the narrator tells us that she and her husband have not got older or changed in 87 years! Chapter 3: Winnie Foster is sitting outside on the grass on the baking hot August day, talking to a toad. She also is not in a very good mood. After a while both her mother and her grandmother call out to her, telling her not to get dirty and to come inside. Winnie wishes she had a sister or a brother, so she could have a little freedom to do what she wants and go where she wants. She tells the toad she's going to run away from home. Chapter 4: It is sunset of the same day and a stranger comes up the road to the gate of Winnie's house. He is dressed rather strangely in a yellow suit and a black hat. But Winnie starts talking to him and she quite likes him. The stranger asks her questions about the house and her family. Just then her grandmother comes out. As she is talking to the stranger, they hear sounds of music coming from nearby Treegap wood. Winnie has never heard the music before, but her grandmother says that it is elf music. She takes Winnie back inside the house. The stranger stays listening to the music, looking very happy. Chapter 5 : Winnie wakes up and decides not to run away after all. She is too afraid. Instead, she decides she will go and explore the wood, to see

where the music was coming from. The wood is cool and shady, with many flowers and animals. As she walks into the wood, she sees a clearing in front of her with a huge tree in the middle of it. Leaning against the tree is a young boy. He doesn't see her, and he slowly moves a pile of pebbles by his side to uncover a little spring. As he is drinking from the spring, he looks up and sees Winnie looking at him. He introduces himself as Jesse Tuck and tells her he is 104 years old! She doesn't believe him, so he says he is 17. When she asks if she can drink from the stream, he becomes serious and tells her it would be terrible if she did. Then he hears his mother Mae Tuck and his brother Miles calling to him. His mother is very worried when she sees that Winnie has found out their secret . Chapter 6: Winnie bends down to drink from the spring, but before she can do so, the two boys lift her up and put her on their horse. They take her away from the wood. Winnie knows she is being kidnapped , but this doesn't seem to frighten her. They see the man in the yellow suit, but something stops Winnie from shouting to him for help. When they finally stop for a drink, Winnie suddenly feels scared and starts to cry. The others try to calm her down and Mae Tuck takes out her music box to play a little song. It is the same music that Winnie had heard coming from the wood the evening before. The music helps Winnie relax a little, and Jesse says he will try to explain why they had to take her away with them. Chapter 7: The Tuck's tell Winnie the story of how they found the spring 87 years ago and drank from it. The water tasted a little strange, but nothing unusual happened at first. Then Jesse fell out of a tree and landed hard on his head, but it didn't hurt him at all. Then some hunters shot their horse by accident, but the bullet went right through it, and it wasn't hurt. Then they realized that they weren't getting any older. They worked out it was the water that was keeping them young. Angus Tuck, Jesse and Miles' father, even tried shooting himself in the heart, but it didn't harm him at all. Of course, they had to leave their farm, because other people would have said they were witches. Chapter 8: Winnie is not sure whether to believe the story of not, while Jesse and Miles argue about whether it is good to be immortal or not. Mae Tuck says they will take Winnie to their home the next day. Winnie is comfortable with the Tucks and is happy to have found new friends. They did not know that the man in the yellow suit had crept up to the bushes where they were sitting and had heard every word of the Tuck's story.

Chapter 9 : Next day, the Tuck's take Winnie on the long, hot journey to their home. Angus Tuck, Mae's husband, is very happy to meet Winnie and says it's the best thing that has happened in 80 years. Chapter 10: Winnie looks around the Tuck's house. It is untidy and a little dusty, very different from her own house, where her mother and grandmother clean and tidy every day. Winnie thinks that she likes their interesting, comfortable house very much. Mae tells Winnie that her sons disappear for about 10 years at a time, working in different places. But then they have to move on because people would be suspicious if they didn't seem to get older. She says they will soon have to leave from their comfortable house and find a new place to live. Mae Tuck says that she has accepted what has happened to her, and doesn't spend too long thinking about it. Chapter 11 : The Tuck family and Winnie sit down to eat their evening meal. While they eat, there is no conversation, and Winnie starts to feel lonely and homesick. At the end of the dinner she says she wants to go home. Angus Tuck plans to take Winnie out in a rowing boat on the pond, so that he can explain why Winnie should never tell anyone the secret. When he hears about the man in the yellow suit, he has the feeling that some problems are on their way! Chapter 12 : Angus Tuck and Winnie row out onto the quiet, evening pond, listening to the wind and the frogs. Tuck talks about how everything is changing all the time, even if you cannot always see it. And that's how it should be, he says. But the Tuck's are stuck, (like their boat that gets stuck in a fallen tree in the water) and they cannot change. When he says that all living things must sometimes die, Winnie gets angry and says that she doesn't want to die. But Tuck explains how terrible it would be if people were like rocks, never growing or changing. Winnie is trying to understand, when suddenly Miles runs up and says that their horse has been stolen. Chapter 13: The man in the yellow suit, who is the horse thief, arrives at Winnie's house and tells Winnie's grandmother that he knows where Winnie has been taken. Chapter 14 : It is too dark for the Tuck's to try and find the horse thief, so they decide to wait until the next day. They talk about what has happened, and Angus Tuck feels very concerned. Winnie cannot get off to sleep and longs to be back in her own bed. She feels a little better when she thinks

that the man in the yellow suit will have told her parents what he had seen on the road. But the Tuck's are so kind to her that she begins to feel more comfortable again. Then Jesse comes to her bedside and says that she could wait 6 or 7 years until she is the same as him, then go and drink the water. They would then be the same age together forever and could get married. She adores him and when he has gone she thinks about what he has said. But she just feels confused. She doesn't know what to think any more. Chapter 15: The man in the yellow suit is in the Foster's house, telling them what he saw. He wants to make a deal with them. He says that if they sell him the wood, he will help them to find their child. Once Foster has signed the contract , he will go to the police and show them where Winnie is. Chapter 16: The policeman is a little suspicious of the man in the yellow suit. And he is very surprised to learn that the Fosters have sold their wood. On their way to the Tuck's house the policeman tries to talk to the man in the yellow suit , but he doesn't want to say very much. In fact, he tells the policeman he wants to ride on ahead, because he's worried about the child. Chapter 17: Winnie wakes up the next morning and again thinks of home. She goes fishing with Miles to catch something for breakfast. She watches Miles as he fishes. Miles tells Winnie about his own child who would be about 80 years old by now and his son would be 82. He had thought about giving his children the magic water, but his father had talked him out of the idea. A mosquito lands on Winnie's knee. This make her think what it would be like if nothing ever died - he whole world would be full of mosquitoes! She decides that the Tucks were right and she will keep their secret. When Miles catches a fish, Winnie tells him to let it live and put it back in the water. Chapter 18: They talk over breakfast, and Winnie begins to feel a little silly she was so unhappy and homesick the previous night. She is just thinking that she loves all of the family, when there is a knock at the door. it is the man in the yellow suit. Chapter 19: Winnie takes a dislike to the man in the yellow suit, who acts as if he owns their house. He tells them the story of a friend of his grandmother, who got married and had children but her husband never got older. Miles Tuck realizes he is talking about his wife and daughter, Anna. The man in the yellow suit says he has devoted his life trying to finding out

if it was true that someone could live forever. He says that his grandmother gave him a music box and he remembered the tune it played. Then he says he heard the tune coming from the Foster's wood and saw the Tucks taking Winnie away. He says he has promised to bring Winnie home if they will give him the wood. He plans to sell the water in the wood - for a lot of money. He wants the Tuck's to help him find the spring and advertise the water, for which he will pay them. When they refuse, he takes hold of Winnie and starts to drag her outside. Mae gets her shotgun and points it at the man in the yellow suit. He doesn't believe she will shoot and says he will give Winnie some of the water to drink. She doesn't shoot but knocks over the head with the handle of the gun, and he drops like a falling tree. Just at this moment, the policeman arrives and sees everything. Chapter 20: The policeman asks why Mae hit the man in the yellow suit and is astonished when Winnie tells him that the Tucks had not kidnapped her. They were her friends and she went with them voluntarily. The policeman arrests Mae Tuck and takes Winnie with him. He says that Mae will be hanged if the man in the yellow suit dies. As she rides home, Winnie is thinking how she can save Mae from the gallows . Chapter 21: Winnie is home again at last. Her family refuses to believe that she was not kidnapped. Both Winnie and her family know that she has changed in the time she has been away. As she tries to sleep, she thinks about the man in the yellow suit, not sure whether she wants him to die or not. She hears the policeman come to tell the Fosters the news that the man in the yellow suit has died. She wonders what Mae Tuck must be feeling and she knows that she must save her from the gallows. Chapter 22: Next morning is very hot again. Winnie goes outside and sees the toad again. While she is sitting there, Jesse suddenly appears before her. He tells her of Miles plan to help Mae escape from jail at midnight that night. He tells her she will not see him again for a long time, and gives her a bottle of the magic water. She should drink it when she's 17 and then come looking for him. She says she will help the escape plan by pretending to be Mae Tuck in the prison cell. Chapter 23: Winnie waits impatiently until midnight, thinking what her family will say when they find out what she has done. She slowly falls asleep, and when she wakes up it is 5 minutes before midnight - just in time to get to the jail.

Chapter 24 : Jesse is waiting for her at the gate as she leaves her house. They meet up with Miles and Father Tuck and go to the jail. Miles loosens the window frame and then waits for the crack of thunder before pulling out the whole window. Mae is almost to big to fit through the window but they finally manage to pull her out. Winnie climbs in to take her place, and watches from the window as the Tucks disappear from her life. Chapter 25: It is two weeks later and Winnie is at home again. She remembers the long night in the jail before she was discovered the next morning. The policeman was very angry with her and shouted at her, but Winnie was too young to be punished . Winnie's family was also angry and disappointed with her at first, but they did not disown her. Later she sees her toad again, and rescues it from a dog that wants to eat it. She pours the magic water over the frog, emptying the bottle. She thinks to herself that she can get more water from the wood if she decides to change her mind later. Chapter 26: It is many years later. The wood and the houses near it have been swallowed up by a new town with shops and gas stations, etc. They stop at a cafe and learn that the wood had burned down in a big thunderstorm some time before. Walking through the town later, they come to a cemetery . They see Winnie's gravestone and know that she had got married and had children. She had then died at the age of 78. They all feel both happy and sad. As they are leaving the town for the last time, they see Winnie's toad and move it safely to the side of the road.