A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST BOOK CLUB - WEEK 2 - CHAPTERS 1-2
A GIRL OF THE LIMBERLOST by Gene Stratton-Porter
I want to yell my head off at this first chapter. I want to reach through the book and grab Kate by the shoulders and shake her until her teeth rattle. She knowingly sent her daughter out the door prepared for failure, and not only that, she BET AGAINST HER. She bet that she would have enough of it by night. What kind of mother does this? That's a question we're going to find ourselves asking repeatedly for awhile. So what is it that Elnora wanted to do so badly? Go to school.
You already know that everything that could have gone wrong on the first day, did. It makes my Momma heart ache to watch this innocent girl go through everything she does. Her hair, her clothes, her shoes, her lunch, her supplies (or lack of) are all wrong. And we get it, don't we? We know that feeling that she feels when she steps into the auditorium and walks down the aisle with the churning sea of faces on each side of her. The sea opens up for all the other students walking down the aisle except for Elnora. Then, she pleas for the Almighty to hide her in the "shadow of His wing." It's almost more than I can take as a Momma, but my question is do you remember those moments in your own life? The moments when you begged to be hidden and not noticed by a certain person or group? Did those feelings come crashing back as you read this? Gene Stratton-Porter builds a strong connection between us and Elnora right from the start by helping us remember strong emotions within our own lives.
She finally gets to her classroom. What Elnora lacks in clothes and things, she makes up for in her school work. She is an exceptional student and that shines through with the board work scene in her Algebra class. Isn't her response to the name changing incident fantastic?( How is it that kids are so quick to take beautifully bestowed or sensibly given names and destroy them with nicknames in a matter of seconds?) Kudos to the professor who opens the door to her saving!
Okay, it's clear that I could write and comment about everything that happened in these two chapters, but I'm going to have to pick and choose a bit. So, I'm going to just touch on these next couple of things.
-She needs books. Books cost money. The land and trees they have are valuable, but her mother won't cut them down. Layer upon layer of impossibility and heartache grow.
-Who is Freckles? Freckles is a person that shows up in the story at different times, but isn't really explained. Stratton-Porter wrote another book about the Limberlost before this one entitled Freckles. He was an orphan boy who came to the Limberlost to work for the lumber company. When he left the area, he gave some of his things to Elnora including a box in the Limberlost that she uses to store her treasures and finds in.
Next big topic to discuss, Wesley and Margaret "Maggie" Sinton. Maggie and Wesley love Elnora and look after her. All I can say is thank goodness that Stratton-Porter gave them to Elnora and to us so we have a bit of peace about Elnora's situation. Their own two, little girls died, and Elnora has become a sort of daughter figure to them. There's a lot we learn about Elnora and her situation through them. We learn about what happened to her father which gives us a bit of understanding about why Kate is the way she is. (There'll be more coming about this!) We get this lovely bit of foreshadowing here, too. Wesley is convinced that Kate was in love with a dream. Because of what happened, Kate borderline went crazy and still sometimes stands at the edge of the Limberlost and screams for her deceased husband. (We live in the middle of the woods and have some swampy bottom land. IAs I read this part, I could picture a woman running along the edge of that area begging for him to be given back.)
It's Wesley who finds Elnora crying after her first day of school. After comforting her, he goes home, gets Maggie, and they go to town. I just love this scene. I love what Maggie does. This woman doesn't know what to buy. She doesn't know what's in fashion or acceptable, so she makes an appeal to sympathy to the group of girls who are in the store. Brilliant! Wesley and Maggie make sure that Elnora has what she needs even if Wesley has to secretly cut one of Kate's trees down to pay for it. (Feel free to comment about that.) Overall, it feels like Christmas to them. Afterall, it's better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). I'm sure Kate will have a thing or two to say about all of this!
Thoughts and comments? I'd love to hear them!