Her father had deserted the family, and in order to repay the father's debts her mother made Lyddie a servant to Mrs. In contrast to the generous Luke and Triphena, others make Lyddie's life difficult.

Determined to be the kicker in the butter churn, Lyddie resolves to turn adversity to her advantage. But the other kicked and kicked, and in the morning they found him there, floating on a big pat of butter' (p. One day while Lyddie churns milk into butter, Triphena tells her about two frogs that fell into a pail of milk. She learns a great deal from her friend Triphena, the cook, who never married because she refused to be a slave to any man. However, the adversity she will endure during her year there will strengthen her character. once I enter I'm a servant girl - no better than a black slave' (p. Luke Stevens, the youngest of the four grown Stephens sons, drives Charlie to Baker's Mill to work as an apprentice, then takes Lyddie to Cutler's Tavern, ten miles away, where she begins her servitude in the kitchen.īefore she crosses the threshold of the tavern, she thinks, 'I ain't free anymore. Leaving her beloved home, Lyddie resolves to return. Jeremiah Stevens, a Quaker (a Friend in both senses), generously gives her $25 for the calf sired by his bull even though he is entitled to half of the $25 himself. Consequently, Lyddie sells their farm animals to neighbors.

Some months later, she writes Lyddie and Charlie (age ten) that they must work to pay debts of their father, who abandoned the family years earlier when he went West to seek his fortune. Worthen that Judgment Day is imminent consequently, she flees with her two youngest daughters, Rachel and Agnes, to her sister's farm, leaving Lyddie and Charlie behind.

A huge bear that charges through the Worthens' cabin door convinces Mrs. Thus offers today's adolescent reader an excellent opportunity to learn from historical fiction. Transcending this material goal, she learns self-reliance and becomes her own person. Forced to work to repay her family's debts, thirteen-year-old Lyddie journeys far beyond her home in her quest for money. Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it within us - or we find it not.ġ991 young adult novel about an impoverished mid-19th-century farm girl who overcomes economic and social obstacles, travel serves as a metaphor for Lydia Worthen's spiritual growth.

Lyddie book cover