The Limner's Daughter

Set in 1805 Massachusetts, depicting the introduction of the Baldwin apple, the construction of inland waterways, and patriotic prejudice, this novel reveals the struggle of a sixteen-year-old girl to understand and clear the mystery of her father's reputation as she strides to build a home for her family.Amity Lyte was sixteen, and for months she had worked in a sail factory to earn a living for her, her injured father - at one time a successful portrait painter, called in those days a limner - and her six year old brother. When a letter comes from great aunt Keziah offering the family a home, Amity rebelled against her father's refusal to accept. The determined spirit that had carried her through a long period of difficulty and exhaustion won the day, and the Lyte family set out from Boston to Woburn, Massachusetts, on the newly constructed Middlesex Canal.Amity was puzzled by a number of why had her father never spoken of his aunt Keziah? Why was he so unwilling to go back to his old home in Woburn? Why had he left in the first place? Why did he forbid Amity to talk to that friendly young man, Sam Baldwin? Her perplexity increased upon finding Aunt Keziah's front door locked and overgrown with ivy; and discovering within a few days that the people of Woburn were not just unfriendly, but downright hostile to the Lyte family.The answers to her questionings came gradually during a strange, interesting year, while she was finding herself capable of organizing the means of support for an even larger family than before.