Maybe it was foolish for two boys to want to be rich, but when your father must go off to the city to find work because there is not enough to eat and there is no work for him in the village, you really need some money.
Santiago and Andreas decided they had to do something to help their families. They tried everything they could think of. They carried water, they watched the neighbour's cow, they guided tourists through the village church and the abandoned silver mine in the hills nearby.
Eleanor Clymer (née Lowenton; January 7, 1906 – March 31, 2001), was a writer of children's books, best known for The Trolley Car Family (1947). She graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1928 with a degree in English. Between the years of 1943 and 1983 she published 58 books, including The Tiny Little House, My Brother Stevie, and Hamburgers–and Ice Cream for Dessert.
Clymer was born in New York City, the daughter of Russian immigrants. Through much of her life she was a resident of Katonah, New York and an active member of the nearby Unitarian Universalist fellowship. In 1980 she was awarded the Rip Van Winkle award by the School Library Media Specialists of Southeastern New York for outstanding contributions to children's literature.
Her son, Adam Clymer, was a journalist with The New York Times. Clymer died in 2001 at the age of 95 in Haverford, Pennsylvania.