Hitty, Her First Hundred Years

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HITTY: HER FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

Other Books by Rachel Field

Eliza and the Elves

Illustrated by Elizabeth MacKinstry

Little Dog Toby

Illustrated by the author

The White Cat and Other Tales

By the Countess D’Aulnoy. Edited by Rachel Field. Illustrated by Elizabeth MacKinstry.

The Pointed People

Silhouettes by the author

HITTY

HER FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

BY

RACHEL FIELD

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
DOROTHY P. LATHROP

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK

Copyright, 1929,

BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY,

All rights reserved, including the
right of reproduction in whole
or in part in any form.

Thirty First Printing, 1964

Printed in the United States of America

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO

THE STATE OF MAINE

AND

ABBIE EVANS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER		PAGE
I.	In Which I Begin My Memoirs	1
II.	In Which I Go Up in the World and Am Glad to Come Down Again	17
III.	In Which I Travel—by Land and Sea	30
IV.	In Which We Go to Sea	37
V.	In Which We Strike Our First and Last Whale	46
VI.	In Which I Join the Fishes and Rejoin the Prebles	60
VII.	In Which I Learn the Ways of Gods, Natives, and Monkeys	72
VIII.	In Which I Am Lost in India	81
IX.	In Which I Have Another Child to Play with Me	93
X.	In Which I Am Rescued and Hear Adelina Patti	107
XI.	In Which I Sit for My Daguerreotype and Meet a Poet	123
XII.	In Which I Go Into Camphor, Reach New York, and Become a Doll of Fashion	131
XIII.	In Which I Spend a Disastrous New Year’s and Return to New England	142
XIV.	In Which I End My Hay-Days and Begin a New Profession	154
XV.	In Which I Learn Much of Plantations, Post Offices, and Pin Cushions	173
XVI.	In Which I Return to Familiar Scenes	184
XVII.	In Which I Am Sold at Auction	196

ILLUSTRATIONS

Hitty	frontispiece
	PAGE
I begin my memoirs	3
Then there were the bats	8
There was a painful picture of a man being swallowed by a large fish	9
We gathered arbutus that spring in the Preble woods	13
All the flowers seemed to be trying to blossom at once	18
Suddenly I felt myself hoisted into the air by my waistband	21
Up went my feet, out went my arms, and plop!	25
I lay in my cradle and listened to the crickets chirping	31
He made me a sea chest to hold my possessions	39
I floated in the quiet waters of a rock pool	61
Had my hair not been so firmly painted on my head, it would have stood on end	89
Little Thankful’s sampler had doves and a weeping willow tree on it	97
I did not make much of a showing among the other dolls	105
I could now sit on my bench before my own desk	111
My spirit was willing enough but my pegs were not	137
I fell at the feet of Mr. Dickens	140
Sometimes they would wash my face too	151
I was dressed as a bride	163
I sometimes used to feel that I had entered a menagerie	193
I feel that many more adventures are awaiting me	206

HITTY: HER FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

HITTY

HER FIRST HUNDRED YEARS

By RACHEL FIELD

Illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop

Hitty is a doll of great charm and real character. It is indeed a privilege to be able to publish her memoirs which, besides being full of the most thrilling adventures on land and sea, also reveal a personality which is delightful and forceful. One glance at her portrait will show that she is no ordinary doll. Hitty, or Mehitable, as she was really named, was carved from a piece of white ash by a peddler who was spending the winter in Maine. Phoebe Preble, for whom Hitty was made, was very proud of her doll and took her everywhere, even on a long sailing trip in a whaler. In this way Hitty’s horizon was broadened and she acquired ample material to make her memoirs exciting and instructive.

Hitty is a real doll, over one hundred years old, and now belongs to both Miss Field and Miss Lathrop. Recently she has done more traveling all over America in special exhibits to get acquainted with the young readers who love her story.

Awarded the John Newbery Medal in 1930

In 1930 Hitty was awarded the John Newbery Medal as “the most distinguished contribution to American Literature for Children” in that season. Since then her fame has spread far and wide and children everywhere know Hitty.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1980, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 44 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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