BooksBarbecue
Back Lyddie
Chapters (36)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Books by Katherine Paterson
  4. Dedication
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. 8
  13. 9
  14. 10
  15. 11
  16. 12
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. 20
  25. 21
  26. 22
  27. 23
  28. Acknowledgments
  29. Dear Reader
  30. Pre-reading Activities
  31. Week One (Chapters 1–6)
  32. Week Two (Chapters 7–12)
  33. Week Three (Chapters 13–18)
  34. Week Four (Chapters 19–23)
  35. Post-reading Activities
  36. What’s next onyour reading list?

I’d give it good thought, Lyddie said to herself. I’d get it all figured out close and choose my time right. If I was running, I’d pick me a early summer night with a lot of moon. I’d just travel by night, sleep in the day …

“Can you believe these fools?” Triphena was saying in her ear. “They don’t know what it’s like to be trapped.”

Lyddie had never seen a black person. She tried to imagine how one might look and act. In a way, she’d like to see one, but what would she do? What would she say? And supposing it was a fugitive, what then? One hundred dollars! Would they really give you a hundred dollars for turning in a runaway slave? Surely, with that much money, she could pay off her father’s debts and go back home.

*  *  *

March came. The sap began to rise in the sugar bush, and Cutler’s was in a frenzy of activity. Willie went with the hired men to help in the gathering and boiling of the sap. Mr. Cutler had built a large sugaring shed two summers ago, and the only time any of the men were around the big house was when the livestock needed tending to. Even then, Lyddie was called on to help with the milking and the feeding and watering of the stock.

Added to all her other chores was the task of clarifying the syrup brought up to the house. They had never bothered much with clarifying at the farm as there had hardly been enough syrup or sugar for the family, but the mistress was very particular and stood over Lyddie directing her.

It was hot and exhausting work—beating milk and ash lye with the syrup and boiling the mixture until the impurities rose to the top in a scum and could be skimmed off—but the mistress, who only watched and commanded, declared the light, clear syrup worth the effort.

Some of the clarified syrup was boiled until it turned to sugar and was molded into fancy shapes. Lyddie’s favorite among the lead molds was the head of George Washington, though sometimes the nose stuck and it was ruined.

It was because of the molded sugar that Lyddie’s dream of taking the calf money home came true, though she couldn’t have known how that dream was going to come out.

5

Going Home

By the second week of April, the sap had ceased to run, but it had been a good sugaring season. The mistress decided to take a large selection of the molded maple sugar to Boston. She could pay for her trip by selling the sugar, and it would give her a chance to see the big city and her perpetually ailing sister.