Dear America: Like the Willow Tree Read online

  Sabbathday Lake’s water tower.

  The Sabbathday Lake sleigh, much like the one in which Lydia would have taken a ride.

  A postcard showing the Poland Spring House, where the Shakers from Sabbathday Lake sold many of their handmade goods.

  The Seiden.

  The Shakers were among the first Americans to use a machine to wash their laundry. Nicholas Bennett of the Shaker community in Mount Lebanon, New York, invented the water-powered granite wash mill.

  Men haying the fields of Sabbathday Lake.

  A modern map of the United States showing Portland, Maine, and the village of Sabbathday Lake.

  About the Author

  Lois Lowry is the acclaimed author of two Newbery Medal books, Number the Stars and The Giver. She has written many books for young readers, including Gathering Blue, Messenger, and the picture book Crow Call.

  Buying a house in southwestern Maine and discovering the Sabbathday Lake community led her to develop the story that became Lydia Pierce’s diary, Like the Willow Tree.

  She notes, “Eight years ago, I bought a very old farmhouse in southwest Maine. It sits on a hilltop that had once been called Brigham Hill. I often found myself wondering what life was like in the late eighteenth century when the house was new. The granite foundation, the wide pine floors, the post-and-beam barn with its wooden pegs and hand-hewn nails — all of it felt saturated with memories of people who worked hard and, I hoped, had been happy here.

  “Thirty miles away, by way of winding roads past lakes and small villages, I discovered a place that had come to life at almost the same time as Brigham Hill Farm. It was called Sabbathday Lake, and it was the site of a Shaker community.

  “I had, some years before, visited the Shaker Village at Canterbury, New Hampshire, had had a tour, and been greeted pleasantly by elderly Sister Bertha Lindsay, one of the last living Shakers there. But she, I knew, had since died, and there were no longer any Shakers left at Canterbury.

  “It was a surprise to find Sabbathday Lake and to discover that three Shakers remain in residence there — not feeble and pious, but busy, committed, and cheerful. On my first visit there, I joined a regular tour. Then, on a different day, I took the tour a second time. On several different days I simply walked around, absorbing the landscape and the history that seemed to permeate it. Finally I returned several times to ask questions of Brother Arnold Hadd, one of the three Shakers who still live in the dwelling there, and a knowledgeable historian. I used their library, read their journals and records, and imagined what I could not know. Then I created a little girl, gave her a name and a fictional life, and took her to Sabbathday Lake to live at Chosen Land.”

  — Lois Lowry, Bridgton, Maine

  Acknowledgments

  With thanks to Leonard L. Brooks, director of the Shaker Library and Museum at Sabbathday Lake; to Tina Agren, the librarian/archivist; and to Brother Arnold Hadd, who patiently and generously answered questions that he has probably answered a hundred times before.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to use the following:

  Cover portrait by Tim O’Brien.

  Cover background: Detail, Sabbathday Lake Village (looking south), girls’ shop (right), © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Red Cross workers, © akg-images/The Image Works.

  Field hospital, © akg-images/The Image Works.

  Street sweeper with mask, © akg-images/The Image Works.

  Outdoor church service, © Collections of the Maine Historical Society, image #5264.

  Outdoor trial, © Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

  Panoramic view of Sabbathday Lake, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Panoramic view of Sabbathday Lake, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Girls’ shop at Sabbathday Lake, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Sisters’ workroom, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Eldress Lizzie Noyes, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Elder William Dumont, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Poplar baskets, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Sister Clara Stewart weaving poplar cloth, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Brother Delmer Wilson making poplar boxes, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Dining hall, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Water tower, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Sleigh, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Poland Spring House, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  The Selden, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Granite wash mill, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Men haying, © Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Sabbathday Lake, Maine.

  Map by Jim McMahon.

  Other books in the

  Dear America series

  Copyright

  While the events described and some of the characters in this book may be based on actual historical events and real people, Lydia Amelia Pierce is a fictional character, created by the author, and her diary and its epilogue are works of fiction.

  Copyright © 2011 by Lois Lowry

  Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi

  Cover portrait by Tim O’Brien © 2011 Scholastic Inc.

  Cover background: Collection of the United Society of Shakers, Maine.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. scholastic, dear america, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lowry, Lois.

  Like the willow tree :

  the diary of Lydia Amelia Pierce / Lois Lowry.

  — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Dear America)

  Summary: After being orphaned during the influenza epidemic of 1918, eleven-year-old Lydia Pierce and her fourteen-year-old brother are taken by their grieving uncle to be raised in the Shaker community at Sabbathday Lake. Includes author’s note about the Shakers.

  Trade Paper-Over-Board edition ISBN 978-0-545-14469-8

  Reinforced Library edition ISBN 978-0-545-26556-0

  1. Shakers — Fiction. [1. Shakers — Fiction. 2. Diaries — Fiction. 3. Maine — History — 20th century — Fiction.] I. Title.

  PZ7.L9673Li 2011

  [Fic] — dc22

  2010013369

  First edition, January 2011

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher

  E-ISBN: 978-0-545-41498-2

 

 

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