28 Books -- Day 8

[bluecastle]

Understood Betsy -- by Dorothy Canfield (1916)

"Two women in gingham dresses and white aprons came out of the house. One was old and one might be called young, just like Aunt Harriet and Aunt Frances. But they looked very different from those aunts. The dark-haired one was very tall and strong-looking, and the white-haired one was very rosy and fat. They both looked up at the little, thin, white-faced girl on the high seat, and smiled. "Well, Father, you got her I see," said the brown-haired one. She stepped up to the wagon and held up her arms to the child. "Come on, Betsy, and get some supper," she said, as though Elizabeth Ann had lived there all her life and had just driven into town and back.

And that was the arrival of Elizabeth Ann at the Putney Farm." (page 37)

Elizabeth Ann is a very indulged little girl living with two very uptight city Aunts. When one of the Aunts gets sick, she is sent off to live with her country relatives. Her journey from timid Elizabeth Ann to capable Betsy has always been one of my favorite stories.

She has heard nothing good about these rustic relatives from her city relations, but on her arrival she is simply wrapped into the daily life on the farm and finds, eventually, that the world isn't as scary as she was previously taught.

Coming from a lifeless city apartment, and after making a solitary train trip, Betsy finds herself in a warm farmhouse kitchen, stirring applesauce for the dinner, and being handed a kitten to cuddle.

And sign me up for any family in which dinner consists of all you can eat pancakes!!