In Which We
Discuss Hitty: Her First Hundred
Years
Written by Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop
HITTY
Her First Hundred Years
Week of
Chapter Fifteen: In
Which I Learn Much of Plantations, Post
Offices and Pin Cushions:
Hitty does a lot of traveling and has several new owners in this interesting chapter.
She floats down the Mississippi River in a basket like
Moses, is
rescued from the basket by two little negro boys who are out fishing,
is taken
home by one of the boys as a gift for his little sister, arrives later
at the
big plantation house for the annual end of harvest/Christmas
celebration, is
discovered as the missing doll from the Cotton Exposition and mailed
back to
New Orleans where she languishes in a desk until she is mailed to New
York City
where she goes to the dead letter office.
She is then is carried to a tobacco shop and accidentally left
there and
is then carried by the ticket agent to his home.
Hitty has several owners
and/or temporary caretakers in this chapter.
First is Sally Loomis, the spoiled, wild-child daughter of the
riverboat
captain who was so afraid of God’s wrath for stealing that she
tossed Hitty
into the Mississippi River; then sweet little Car'line the young
daughter of
slaves; Miss Hope the honest-to-a-fault plantation owner's grown
daughter; and
the unnamed wife of Jim the ticket agent.
Charlie the post office worker and Jim the ticket agent could be
added
as very short-time owners too, even though they were only Hitty owners
by
accident and quickly passed Hitty on.
Hitty enjoyed her time
with
Car’line. She very much enjoyed hearing the children sing songs
“for their
voices were softer and sweeter than those of any children I had met
before.” At
night, there was always music in the cabins. After the children would
go to
bed, the men would play their guitars and banjos. Hitty’s
thoughts went back to
the