In Which We Discuss Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
Written by Rachel Field, illustrated by Dorothy Lathrop

HITTY Her First Hundred Years

Week of June 7, 2010

Chapter Twelve:  In Which I Go Into Camphor, Reach New York, and Become

A Doll of Fashion:

Life is changing once again for Hitty.  Clarissa is now twelve years old and too old for a doll.  She has gone away to boarding school and Hitty has been packed away in camphor.  Hitty spends more than two years packed away in the attic but eventually the box in which she is located is sent to a cousin’s home in New York.  While en route, the box becomes separated from the rest of the items and finds its way to a house on Washington Square. The box was eventually opened by Miss Milly Pinch, a seamstress hired by the Van Rensselaer family.

Hitty will become Miss Pinch’s masterpiece, her proof that she is a fashionable dressmaker and not merely a seamstress.  She worked on the Rensselaer wardrobe during the day and at night she worked on Hitty’s wardrobe and grumbled about the family to herself.  Hitty learned quite a bit about the family from Miss Pinch’s grumbling before ever meeting the Rensselaers.  Miss Pinch had the goods on the bad behavior of the children, too.  She would store away in her mind these handy bits of information to use in future if needed.

Hitty still has the chemise that Phoebe made and Miss Pinch thought it a remarkably fine piece of linen cloth.  When Miss Pinch completes Hitty’s wardrobe, Hitty is at a loss for words to describe her new attire.  She has become a doll of fashion thanks to Miss Pinch’s exceptional skills.  Despite all the warnings she had heard from the families of both Little Thankful and Clarissa Pryce, she is very pleased to be as well dressed as the people in Godey’s Lady’s Book.

One day while admiring her appearance in the mirror, the door opened and in walked Isabella Rensselaer.  Isabella looked Hitty over carefully and took her downstairs and told her mother “I mean to have her, for Miss Pinch is too old and ugly to play with dolls.”  An argument ensued between Isabella, her mother, and Miss Pinch; and finally Mr. Rensselaer put things right by declaring that the Rensselaers would purchase Hitty and recommend Miss Pinch to a modiste’s establishment on Stuyvesant Square.   

Hitty was especially happy with this decision.  She enjoyed Isabella very much and Isabella favored Hitty over all her other dolls.  Hitty accompanied Isabella wherever she went, even to dancing lessons.  She also had the opportunity to meet the famous Charles Dickens, author of Nicholas Nickleby, which Mr. Rensselaer read to Isabella every night.  At their meeting, Isabella was so excited to meet Mr. Dickens that she dropped Hitty right at his feet.  He picked Hitty up and returned her to Isabella and for months to come Hitty would be the doll that had been held in the very important right hand of Mr. Dickens (his writing hand).