by
Dawn Spinney
Week of April 30, 2007
Chapter Thirteen: In Which I Spend a Disastrous New Year’s and Return to New England:
Hitty's New York owner, Isabella Van Rensselaer, was spoiled and rebellious, yet charming, and was her father's favorite. She was accustomed to getting her own way, so when she decided to go visiting on New Year's Eve, she dressed herself, grabbed Hitty, and went out into the dangerous New York streets alone. This excited Hitty, who was always ready for an adventure.
The adventure, however, turned dangerous when a crowd of street urchins robbed Isabella of some of her valuables, including Hitty. But Hitty's lucky mountain ash composition must have helped her AGAIN, and one of the urchins took Hitty home as a gift for a little visiting cousin, Katie.
Young Katie loved Hitty and took her home, via the new-fangled steam cars, to a Pawtucket, Rhode Island house that was a multi-generation home. The home was comfortable, but not "exciting" until Hitty nearly fell into a pot of doughnut fat. When Katie was sent to the country to recuperate and get strong, Hitty went along.
A hay ride proved to be the next "excitement." Poor
Hitty was dropped in the hay and ended up in a hay loft, where she lay
for years and years. The illustration in this Chapter shows Hitty losing
her coral bead necklace, although I didn't see any reference to it in
the story.
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I just wanted to comment that I didn’t realize that back
then the New Year’s celebration was a far more important holiday
than Christmas and that for weeks kitchens would be active with preparations.
Wonderful cakes were baked and iced, cookies and ginger nuts made. Continuous
company and people celebrating. Sounds like it might have been a fun time
(at least for the well to do).
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Little Isabella sure had spirit. Imagine standing up to that
crowd of boys to defend herself. She never backed down even though she
knew she could not hold them off.
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I’m glad Field put a boy in the group of thugs who had a kind streak. Tim Dooley wants Hitty as a gift for his little cousin Katie.
Life is not bad with Katie. The little girl loves her and Hitty
is well taken care of. Not a very exciting time for Hitty, but it meant
a lot to Hitty that she was such a comfort to Katie. Although, when Hitty
is eventually lost in the hay and realized the children gave up looking
for her, she says that she has discovered “we are easily forgotten
once we are out of sight.” That is a really sad thought.
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Hitty was at least comfortable in the hayloft. She had a soft bed that smelled sweet and was warm in winter. The thought of spending years in the loft, though . . . . It must have seemed forever to her. She at least had her mice friends for company and they watched over her.
Taken from the Hitty Timeline:
1870 New Year’s Eve: Hitty is Lost to Isabella “A crowd of
urchins bore... down upon us.” Obviously, if she met Dickens in
1868, then the following New Year was 1870. I believe it to be the following
New Year, not the one in 1869, because I think Hitty would have phrased
it differently. (She would most likely have said "that New Year's
Eve" instead of "of the following year".)
1870 New Year’s Day: Hitty is given to Katie.
1870 January: Hitty has her first train ride.
1870 Spring to July: Hitty goes to the country. The reason for the leap
from early spring to July is the amount of time needed for Katie’s
recovery.
1870 July or August: Hitty is lost in the hay. She remains there for some
time (“my first weeks there”; more than one season’s
mowing … during the years that followed”). Her coral beads
are, sadly, lost at this time. Hitty was at the farm for a few weeks before
the hayride, and so it could have been still in late July, but more likely
in early August, as that is when the second cutting would commence. Hitty
is not too precise about the amount of time spent there, but then, she
may not have had any way of telling the year.
Hitty’s Travels Thus Far:
Chapter 1: In Maine with the Preble family;
Chapter 2: To Portland, Maine;
Aboard ship bound for the South Seas on a whaling expedition;
Chapter 6: Lost on a South Sea Island;
Chapter 8: Rescued at sea and arrival in Bombay, India;
Traveling back and forth across India with the snake charmer;
Chapter 9: A new home with a missionary family in India;
On board ship with Little Thankful and headed to Philadelphia in America
to live with Little Thankful’s grandparents;
Chapter 10: A new family, the Pryces, in Philadelphia;
Chapter 12: To New York to reside with the Van Rensselaer family;
Chapter 13: Taken from Isabella Van Renneslar by street urchins and given
to one of the gang, Tim Dooley, to become a gift for his little cousin,
Katie. Hitty then travels to Katie’s home in Pawtucket, Rhode Island,
then to the country so that Katie could recuperate from her illness; while
on a hayride, she becomes lost in the hay and tossed into the hayloft
and remains there for “years”.