In Which We
Discuss Hitty: Her First Hundred
Years
Written by Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop
HITTY
Her First Hundred Years
Week of
Chapter Eleven: In
Which I Sit for My Daguerreotype and Meet a
Poet:
Hitty is enjoying her time at the Pryce
household. She was able to attend the
Adelina
Patti concert, although there was that rather frightening moment when
she and
Clarissa got caught up in the mob after the concert.
She then had the opportunity to sit for her
own Daguerreotype. How pleased she was when the artist took special
pains to
create a Daguerreotype just for her. As
if that weren’t enough, she was able to meet the famous poet and
family friend,
John Greenleaf Whittier.
Mr. Whittier paid special attention to her and even created
a poem
for her, “Lines to a Quaker Doll of Philadelphia”.
Not all
is well, however. There are hard times
coming with a war between the North and South over slavery and Hitty is confused about what is happening with
all the talk of soldiers and fighting. The
Pryces, as Quakers, did not send men off to war, but Hitty was able,
from the
front steps of the Pryce household or from her mantle by the window, to
see
long blue lines of men marching by. Imagine
her surprise when she saw the twelfth
Hitty hoped
that when the war ended, things would be as before in the Pryce
household, but in
her heart she knows they won’t. Clarissa
is now twelve years old and declares she is too old for a doll.