Lyddie

During their time alone at the farm, Lyddie and Charlie partnered with their neighbor, who owns a bull, to ensure the birth of a calf to their cow. Lyddie insists that by right the calf is theirs, so they should have complete say over what they will do with her. Charlie suggests that if they sell the calf, they will have to give the money to their mother. Lyddie adamantly disagrees, reminding her brother that they both have worked their entire lives to contribute to the household and have supported their family exclusively for the past three years, and now they are being hired out for their mother’s benefit alone. Further, Lyddie is disgusted knowing that her mother would inevitably give the money to Judah, who would turn all of it over to their preacher. Lyddie reminds Charlie that although their mother can lease out the farm and force her children off it for the time being, she cannot sell the property without their father’s consent. Their father’s whereabouts unknown, Lyddie believes that she and her brother should do what they can to prepare for his return and save money for their future on the farm.

They bring their calf to their neighbor, the Quaker whose bull fathered her, and he learns that the two children have been by themselves over the winter. Mr. Stevens regrets that he did not check on them and offers them the generous price of $25. When they are invited to lunch with the Quaker, his wife, and his sons, Lyddie is impressed and admittedly envious of their sprawling home and its amenities. The Quaker’s son Luke offers Lyddie and Charlie a ride to town and to the mill and tavern where Charlie and Lyddie will be working, respectively. Luke offers to look in on their home while they are away. Lyddie is too resentful of their circumstances to feel much gratitude to Luke. Lyddie waves goodbye to Charlie at the mill, and when Luke parts with her at the tavern it is with a promise that he will look in on her home and her brother and the hope that he will see Lyddie again soon.

Outside Cutler’s Tavern, Lyddie pauses. She knows that once she enters the building, she will surrender her freedom, working for no wages in service to others, instead of bettering her own family’s circumstances. Distracted, Lyddie is nearly run over by an approaching carriage. She finds herself staring at the fashionable young woman who emerges from it, wearing a gown of pink silk and a bonnet trimmed in roses. Lyddie has never seen anyone dressed so finely, and she is immediately aware of her own appearance as she stands barefoot in the spring mud, her only pair of boots slung over her shoulder by their laces because they no longer fit. Triphena, the cook, ushers Lyddie into the kitchen. It is three times the size of Lyddie’s home, filled with cookware, instruments, and mechanisms meant to streamline the process of providing hearty meals for the tavern’s guests. Lyddie sits in the corner, embarrassed by her threadbare, ill-fitting homespun dress and aware of how dirty she has become in her travels, lamenting that she has not had a new dress since her body began to grow and change over the past few years. After her father’s departure, her mother gradually transferred all the household responsibilities to Lyddie, including caring for all three of her siblings while Mattie wallowed without helping. It left Lyddie with no time to make herself new clothes.

At the tavern, Lyddie works tirelessly from before sunrise until late in the day. She is given a new dress and a pair of new boots, but not a room to herself; she sleeps first in an alcove and then before the kitchen hearth to maintain the fire. As the months pass, she thinks constantly of Charlie, missing him terribly and hoping that he is faring well. One day, Lyddie finds that the elegant stranger in the pink silk gown has returned to the tavern. Lyddie overhears her mention to another guest that she is a “factory girl.” When they encounter each other in the dining room, the young lady says that she remembers Lyddie and that she can see Lyddie is hard worker. She suggests that Lyddie should seek employment in one of the mills, where she could gain independence and make a minimum of $2 each week. Lyddie is intrigued but skeptical that a young woman could possibly earn such a sum.

As they work together, Lyddie and Triphena develop a mutual respect that turns into friendship. Lyddie admires Triphena’s independence as a single woman supporting herself, and Triphena admires Lyddie’s work ethic and integrity. Both women are frustrated with Willie, the kitchen boy, who conveniently disappears when there are chores to be done and constantly needs to be reminded to complete tasks. While Lyddie churns butter, Triphena tells the story of a pair of frogs who fell into a bucket of cream. One frog, which Triphena gestures to indicate represents Willie, drowned, while the other frog continued to kick its legs. The frog who stayed in motion eventually began churning butter, saving itself from downing by rendering the cream solid and creating a perch on which to rest. “Some folks are natural born kickers,” she tells Lyddie. “They can always find a way to turn disaster into butter” (28).

In the fall, Charlie surprises Lyddie by coming to visit her at the tavern. He assures her that he is happy and that he is well fed and cared for by the miller. Though she does not reveal her disappointment, Lyddie is dismayed to notice that Charlie has not grown taller or stronger. They have not written to one another in the months since they parted, and after he has gone, Lyddie finds herself remembering many things she wished she had said and worries about him snowshoeing back to the miller’s house alone. When winter comes in full force, the hired hands on the farm adjoining the tavern are cooped up in the kitchen. Lyddie overhears the men speaking as they hollow out the wooden spiles they will hammer into the trees to drain the sap for maple syrup. Their conversation turns to the subject of enslaved people recently traveling through Vermont, having escaped from bondage in the states to the south. The men agree that slavery is the law of the land in the locations from which the enslaved people have come and that they would feel no guilt about turning in an enslaved person to receive the $100 reward. Lyddie, who has never seen a Black person, considers how she might plan her own escape if she were enslaved, and she wonders what she might do if she were in a position to collect such a substantial reward.

That winter, the mistress of the tavern takes a trip into Boston for several days, and Triphena suggests that Lyddie should take a trip of her own. Lyddie decides to check on her family farm and visit Charlie along the way. Traveling on snowshoes, she goes to the mill where her brother is employed and is directed to the miller’s home. The woman who answers the door is pleasant and welcoming and informs Lyddie that her brother is at school. She asks Lyddie to stay for dinner, but Lyddie is uncomfortable in their home and troubled when the miller’s wife tells her, “My husband is growing very fond of him” (37). Lyddie feels as if she should remind the woman that her brother belongs to her and not to the miller’s family. She leaves in a hurry and considers returning the following day, but she decides against it, not wanting to risk finding him away from home again. She trudges through the snow, irritated at the possession she feels the miller’s family has taken of her brother and frustrated by her powerlessness in the situation.

When she arrives at home, she treks around to the window because she and Charlie fortified the front door with firewood to prevent animals from getting inside. She is grateful that Luke has taken the time to look in on their home. As she climbs over the sill into the darkness, Lyddie realizes that there is someone inside her house. She thinks at first it might be Luke, but the person is a stranger, the first Black man she has ever seen.