Running Out of Time: Chapters 1–8

by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Jessie learns that the 19th-century frontier village she lives in is actually a 20th-century tourist attraction — and she must venture out into the modern world to find life-saving medicine for her community.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–8, Chapters 9–16, Chapters 17–25
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. midwife
    a woman skilled in aiding the delivery of babies
    Everybody called Jessie’s mother “the midwife,” but she did a lot more than deliver babies.
  2. poultice
    a medical dressing spread on a cloth and applied to the skin
    Dr. Fister always gave prescriptions like “Make a poultice of chokeberries and rub it on your neck three times a day.”
  3. relent
    give in, as to influence or pressure
    Jessie gave her mother what Pa called “that pitiful please look,” and she relented.
  4. trundle
    a low bed to be slid under a higher bed
    After all, she said, little Katie was soon going to outgrow the trundle bed that slipped under Ma and Pa’s bed downstairs.
  5. prissy
    exaggeratedly proper
    Sally was prissy, kind of like Hannah, but Betsy was always fun to play with.
  6. confer
    have a meeting in order to talk something over
    They’d confer in whispers, then pretend nothing was going on.
  7. rafter
    one of several parallel sloping beams that support a roof
    It made no sense—they had every herb imaginable dried and hanging from the rafters at home.
  8. quarantine
    isolation to prevent the spread of infectious disease
    “What’s a quarantine?” Jessie asked. It looked like the kind of word Mr. Smythe, the schoolmaster, would put on the eighth-grade spelling list. But Jessie had never seen it.
    “It’s a word to let people know there’s a dangerous disease inside, so they should stay away,” Ma said.
  9. threadbare
    thin and tattered with age
    The dress was a threadbare woolen that had originally been Ma’s; it was cut down for Hannah and then passed on to Jessie when Hannah became too stout.
  10. stout
    fairly large
    The dress was a threadbare woolen that had originally been Ma’s; it was cut down for Hannah and then passed on to Jessie when Hannah became too stout.
  11. forge
    a workplace where metal is worked by heating and hammering
    Pa, heading from the barn to the forge, stepped behind her.
  12. smithy
    a workplace where metal is worked by heating and hammering
    Jessie dried her hands on her apron as Pa, laughing, went on to the smithy.
  13. ornate
    marked by complexity and richness of detail
    Across from the door, the ornate mirror on the back wall reflected little light.
  14. implore
    beg or request earnestly and urgently
    “We implore you, Lord, to keep our village and family safe from any sickness abroad in the land,” Pa said.
  15. vain
    having an exaggerated sense of self-importance
    Hannah’s problem was that she spent too much time craning her neck to see into the mirror that hung beside the eighth graders’ desks. Jessie had never understood what it was doing there, unless Mr. Smythe wanted to torture vain students like Hannah.
  16. prompt
    assist by suggesting the next words of something
    “And the next presidential election—” Mr. Smythe prompted.
  17. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    It scared Jessie that Ma sounded so solemn.
  18. authentic
    conforming to fact and therefore worthy of belief
    “Miles Clifton did found this village, in a way. He came up with the idea of building an authentic historical preserve, instead of doing it halfway, like at Williamsburg.”
  19. ebb
    fall away or decline
    Jessie felt her anger ebb.
  20. speculation
    a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence
    When Miles Clifton announced in the 1980s that he was looking for about twenty-five families willing to live like their great-great-grandparents, there was a lot of speculation about who would be interested, Ma said.
  21. grim
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    “Yes, I’m afraid so,” Ma said grimly. “I think it’s time to tell you about that.”
  22. virulent
    infectious; having the ability to cause disease
    But Jefferson Webster and Abby Harlow are very, very ill, and some of the others may be as bad soon. I’m only telling you this so you know how serious it is—many people died of diphtheria before there was medicine to treat it. And this appears to be a particularly virulent strain.
  23. brusque
    rudely abrupt or blunt in speech or manner
    Her voice was sympathetic, then turned brusque, the way it did when Nathan or Bartholomew asked for more food, and there wasn’t any.
  24. frantically
    in an uncontrolled manner
    She turned the knob every way she could, but the door didn’t give. Frantically, she tried jerking it, yanking it, pushing it.
  25. buggy
    a small lightweight carriage
    She was still in a dark area, but enough light shone in from the corridor that she could see the tinker’s cart, a stagecoach, and a buggy like the one visiting politicians used.
  26. tinker
    one who earns a living by mending metal pots and utensils
    Absently, Jessie realized that the tinker, the stagecoach driver, and the politicians must only pretend to live in the 1800s when they visited Clifton: This was where their Clifton things were stored.
  27. mill
    move about in a confused manner
    They sat along the walls, milled around in the open areas, hovered over the tables.
  28. meek
    very docile
    The woman gave Jessie a surprised look, but Jessie followed along, looking meekly at the ground.
  29. abolitionist
    a reformer who favors putting an end to slavery
    Maybe the abolitionists in Clifton had gotten their wish, and there wasn’t slavery anymore.
  30. reprimand
    censure severely or angrily
    Some of the children mumbled yeses. Any adult in Clifton would have reprimanded the children and ordered them to say, “Yes, ma’am,” promptly and crisply.
Created on Tue Jul 20 10:09:29 EDT 2021 (updated Wed Jul 21 11:38:47 EDT 2021)

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