In Which We Discuss Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
Written by Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop

HITTY Her First Hundred Years

Week of March 15, 2010

Chapter Two:  In Which I Go Up in the World and Am Glad to Come Down Again:

Hitty is enjoying her “first” summer, on trips with Captain Preble to Portland, Bath, and nearer farms; expeditions in the old dory with Andy who is learning to sail; visits to and from neighbors; and picking berries.  However, all is not well for long.  One day, while picking raspberries, Hitty is left behind by frightened Phoebe and Andy when Indians approach the area where they are picking.  Of course, Phoebe and Andy could not come back for her, and eventually a huge crow absconds with Hitty and flies off to her nest.  Hitty has a very uncomfortable time in the nest with the squawking babies and the mother crow.  She does discover when looking out of the nest, however, that she is very close to home.  She can watch the family go about their business, and Phoebe and Andy out playing.  While contemplating hurling herself from the nest, she is pushed out by the babies and falls down through the huge ancestral pine only to get hung up in one of the middle branches.  She hangs there for days before finally being discovered by Andy and then it’s a family effort to get her out of the tree.  Hitty is so grateful to be home and safe that she is perfectly content to just lie in Phoebe’s lap.

DISCUSSION:

I loved the way the chapter started with the Preble’s activities during the long summer days. The description of all the wild flowers and the wild roses reminded me so much of my childhood "on the farm" which was actually in the City of Bangor but was all farmland back then. We used to love to lie around in the grass and watch the clouds passing overhead and wild flowers would be everywhere. Days with no plans or worries in sight, just playing, running, having fun!!

I wonder about Mrs. Preble's mention of "turnpike". That's a strange word for back in the early 1800's.  I first remember the word from when we got our "turnpike" (I-95) way back when, but certainly not in the 1800's.  Now no one ever calls it the turnpike anymore.  It's Interstate or I-95.  Turnpike kind of got to be a lost word.

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I know what you mean!  My childhood was spent right in back of a farm and my summers were spent that way too -- berry-picking, climbing trees, seeing every flower trying to be the most beautiful all at once!  I miss life being so simple!  It is funny, after just reading Miss Hickory for the first time, that Hitty disliked her ride with a crow as much as Miss Hickory enjoyed hers!

Phoebe must have been very unhappy indeed after thinking she lost Hitty after bringing her to church in secret, then losing her again and probably thinking that she could never be lucky enough to get her back again!  And after doing something she was told NOT to do!  Ugh, poor Phoebe! 

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The word “turnpike” is actually quite old, dating from the 1700s at latest. According to Wikipedia, the term 'turnpike' originates from the similarity of the gate used to control access to the road, to the barriers once used to defend against attack by cavalry. In those days, the turnpike consisted of a row of pikes or bars, each sharpened at one end, and attached to horizontal members which were secured at one end to an upright pole or axle, which could be rotated to open or close the gate.

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Very interesting, Meghan.  Thanks for taking the time to look this up and let us know.