Overview
From a cramped city home marked by poverty, inadequate food and limited schooling, twelve-year-old Fidelia 'Dilly' West is brought to the mountain resort of Monteagle to recover from severe illness. The contrast is immediate: confinement gives way to open mountain surroundings, scarcity to nourishing food, and enforced weakness to useful daily activity. Yet physical restoration is only one strand of this Christian novel, which asks how care can preserve dignity rather than merely relieve need. Dilly's sincerity and practical kindness shape the moral tension around her. While living in a tent camp, she helps care for young Effie and encounters religious meetings, lectures and Sunday-school instruction. Against this world of service and faith stands Hart Hammond's scepticism, self-indulgence and exposure to drinking, bringing temperance and moral indifference into sharp focus. The novel grants a child genuine moral agency, allowing ordinary conduct to challenge the assumptions of adults without turning her circumstances into a simple lesson in obedience. Mountain scenery, domestic work and chalk-illustrated teaching give the story a distinctive texture. Its didactic purpose is woven through questions of charity, education and maternal anxiety: what does meaningful help require, how may useful work express belief, and what responsibilities arise when comfort exists beside deprivation? The movement between city hardship and mountain abundance lends these concerns a clear social dimension, while the Sunday-school setting connects personal choices with communal instruction. This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9789378419287
- ISBN-10: 9378419283
- Publisher: Alpha Edition
- Publish Date: January 2027
- Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.16 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.23 pounds
- Page Count: 68
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