Orphaned by cholera when he was younger, Jack Flagg and his two younger sisters were raised by their Aunt Arabella and her servants in her mansion in Boston. With rare exceptions, the events of By the Great Horn Spoon! are seen through his eyes (despite his Aunt Arabella’s butler Praiseworthy being the main protagonist). Twelve years old at the start of the novel, Jack is fiercely loyal to his aunt and Praiseworthy, the family’s English butler, whom he’s known all his life and sees as a father figure. Longing for the emotional closeness of a father, Jack has long been frustrated by Praiseworthy’s professional “distance,” which he sees as only “proper” for an English butler of the mid-19th century.

Though only 12, Jack exhibits the courage and resourcefulness of someone twice his age. Upon hearing that his aunt’s inheritance has run out and that she may lose her house, he quickly formulates a daring plan to refill her coffers. He and Praiseworthy, who agreed to accompany him, are forced to continually improvise, but the former is up to the challenge. It is he who comes up with the idea of keeping Monsieur Gaunt’s grape cuttings alive by planting them in Mr.