Category: Historical Novels
Erica Folger sat cross-legged on the flat, railed platform known to Nantucketers as “the walk,” which perched astride the sloping roof of her aunt’s shabby, well-weathered gray house on Orange Street, overlooking the blue waters of the harbor. The water was very blue on that l...
Erica Folger sat cross-legged on the flat, railed platform known to Nantucketers as “the walk,” which perched astride the sloping roof of her aunt’s shabby, well-weathered gray...
2. CHAPTER IIThe cobblestones of Main Street—until recently known as State—were slippery after a heavy shower, and Erica, picking a careful way across them that she might not bespatter her w...
3. CHAPTER IIITommy was carried home from the wharf, a decidedly white-faced and subdued Tommy, and laid on the big four-poster in the room Lis and he shared at the back of the house, while h...
4. CHAPTER IVThe weeks it took for Tommy’s broken bones to mend were a trying period, not only for Tommy himself, but for his mother and Erica as well. The boy tried valiantly to be patient,...
5. CHAPTER VIt was a white Christmas day, after all. During the night it had snowed hard and steadily, but the snow ceased just before dawn, and Nantucketers woke to a Christmas morning of...
6. CHAPTER VIThe first two weeks in April came and went without news of Lis. Then, on a rainy afternoon in the middle of the month Erica and Tommy, sitting on the floor before the grate fire...
7. CHAPTER VIITommy returned with Captain Bartlet to Boston the following day. His going left a great gap in the family, that was made still more apparent by the cloud of anxiety on Lister’s...
8. CHAPTER VIIISlowly Erica got out of bed and went over to the bundle Tommy had left with her earlier that evening. Her hands were cold and shook a little, so that she bungled the knots clums...
9. CHAPTER IX“How are we going to get in without waking them?” she demanded. “Of course, when I slipped out this morning, I didn’t know I was coming back, so I never thought of leaving the d...
10. CHAPTER X“Look here, Rick, what’s all this nonsense between you and Milly?” Lis asked this direct question a trifle impatiently, about a week after his return to Nantucket. Up to then he...
11. did. But the swift thought of Aunt Charity alone at home, sick, and“Oh—nothing,” Erica returned in a flat tone, and sprang to her feet in relief as her aunt entered the room, followed by Lis. She was suddenly and vehemently surer than ever that...
12. CHAPTER XI“Maybe it’s nothing but being overtired, as you say, sister,” she observed, wisely, “but it won’t do a speck of harm to hear what the doctor thinks. You run on over to Doc Spenc...
13. CHAPTER XIIErica had never been one for half measures. With the surprising revelation of Milly’s plucky and pathetic attempt to be at least partially self-supporting, her former opinion of...
14. CHAPTER XIIIIt was only a moment or two later when Erica opened her eyes again, but to the still dazed girl it seemed impossible that she was not asleep and dreaming what she saw about her.
15. CHAPTER XIVErica pirouetted slowly on her toes to show off her new splendor, and Lis, drawing nearer and emerging from his first amazement at the sight of her, began to laugh.
16. CHAPTER XVSun Li preferred the open sea to long calls at the various ports outlined on their itinerary, so they spent very little of the time on land, after all. They stopped at Charlesto...
17. CHAPTER XVI“I was looking for you, Ricky,” he said, excitedly. “Uncle Eric’s going ashore, and he told me we could go along if we wanted to. He says this island’s not on any of his charts,...
18. CHAPTER XVIICaptain Eric’s philosophy about not crossing bridges ahead of time proved to have been well founded in this particular case. Full moon, when it came, not only ushered in a flood...