A bit too tidily, perhaps. It is perhaps not unreasonable that Thomasina should be sent to Peterborough by Bernardo's, given that it has an established orphanage there. It stretches coincidence only a little that Maggie should be taken there, herself, when she falls ill after running away from the farm. That the very person who might be interested in hiring her as a domestic should be the one to come to help organize a fund-raising fete at the orphanage, however, is a bit much, and then that she should live in the one house that Maggie had particularly admired on her way into town. Very tidy, as I said.

      What disturbed me more about the story, however, was that I felt so little sympathy for Maggie and her difficulties. She managed to be friends with the girl on the next farm and to fall somewhat in love with the brother, but she developed very little fondness for the Howard family with whom she lived. Even Lizzie, whom she had practically raised from birth, was a burden to be shed as soon as possible. It took a fire in a neighbour's house to make Maggie realize that she cared for her at all! And they parted company with no regrets, apparently, on either side. Perhaps it is that the author has just got the symbiotic relationship between the twins very right---they have no room for other close relationships in their lives! On the other hand, Lizzie "was" a burden, her mother a depressed lump, her father a tyrant, and the one remaining brother an unhappy and spiteful adolescent! The fact that, once Maggie and Thomasina make contact again, each feels the desire to distance herself from the other, augurs better for future relationships than had they melded into their original closeness.

      On the whole, the story flows smoothly and sheds an interesting light on the way children were shipped about the world, useful commodities in a time of labor shortage. It might just strike a young reader that his or her life could be a lot worse!

Recommended.