Peggy tried to put stories she had heard about Indians and stampedes of buffalo and wild mountain cats and grizzly bears out of her head. Adam Shelton, the wagon-train leader, seemed a good and sensible man who would guide them well on their journey.
Sometimes it seemed to Peggy that her whole life, well, all the important pieces of it, seemed to involve a journey of some sort or other. There was the journey when she was only a little girl, about the same age as Ben Maasen’s daughter, when she had walked until every bone in her body ached and her feet bled and the hunger pains in her stomach had all but driven her crazy in the midst of a starving people, holding onto her big sister’s hand. Then there was that awful voyage from Ireland on the Fortunata, the ship on which she had first met Sarah and John and her beloved James. She shut her eyes, remembering it all.
‘Are you all right, Peggy?’ asked James, his voice full of concern, as he held the leather reins and guided the two horses.
‘I’m fine,’ she smiled. ‘Just fine.’ She leaned over and kissed his cheek. ‘James, I was thinking, the first town we come to, I must post this letter to my family back home. I want them to know all about you, and the wedding and how happy I am.’
He turned to her and smiled lovingly.
Ahead of them lay miles and miles of unexplored territory. It was a long road and a hard journey ahead, but that didn’t bother Peggy a bit, now that she had James beside her. She was on a wagon train, going near half-way across America, just imagine! But this was one journey she really wanted to make.
CHAPTER 25
A Sod of Earth
MARY-BRIGID STOOD IN THE CENTRE of their cottage. The wooden door lay smashed to smithereens and the dresser was cracked. Through the hole in the roof she could see the evening sky, where the first star was appearing. All their furniture lay in a heap together. Two panes of glass in the window were broken.
‘Tomorrow we’ll start to fix the place,’ assured her father.
She followed the rest of them outside. Nano was leaning on Michael’s arm and John carried Jodie on his shoulders. It was almost dark and the scraggy shadows of thorn bushes and furze danced wildly. The fields and low stone walls lay spread out, dark and mysterious, around them. In the distance she heard the soft whinny of a horse – a young horse.
‘Morning Boy! Will ye stop that or I’ll have Ormonde down here wanting to buy you too!’ laughed Michael.
‘I was afraid you’d sold him,’ murmured Mary-Brigid.
‘What makes you think I’d be so foolish as to sell one of the best racehorses Ireland’s ever likely to see?’ joked Michael. ‘’Tis going to be a lot of work looking after him, Mary-Brigid, now that his foster mother’s gone. And seeing I’ll be busy I’ll be needing some sort of a helper.’
‘Me, you mean?’ asked Mary-Brigid, her eyes sparkling.
Michael smiled at her delight.
‘Mary-Brigid, come over here to me,’ called Eily gently. ‘Look around you, Mary-Brigid.’ Her mother bent down and lifted up a heavy sod of earth. ‘Open your hands, pet.’
Eily placed the sod in Mary-Brigid’s open hands. The earth felt hard and heavy and damp. It smelt of peat and new grass and all the things that had grown in it for hundreds and hundreds of years.
‘Hold this sod, Mary-Brigid, and remember this day and this night! This is the day that these fields and this land and this hard-worked soil finally became ours!’
Mary-Brigid stood under the dark, spreading sky, and vowed never to forget.
About the Author
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA is one of Ireland’s most popular children’s authors. She has written many bestselling children’s books. Under the Hawthorn Tree, her first novel, became an immediate bestseller and has been described as ‘the biggest success story in children’s historical fiction.’ It has been reprinted numerous times since its first publication in 1990, and has reached a worldwide market through translations and foreign editions. Its sequels, Wildflower Girl and Fields of Home, which complete the CHILDREN OF THE FAMINE trilogy, have also been hugely successful. Marita’s other children’s novels have also received wide critical acclaim.
DONALD TESKEY drew the chapter-head illustrations. His paintings have been exhibited to great acclaim in Europe and North America.
Other Books by
MARITA CONLON-McKENNA
Under the Hawthorn Tree
Wildflower Girl
The Blue Horse
No Goodbye
Safe Harbour
In Deep Dark Wood
A Girl Called Blue
The Children of the Famine Trilogy
UNDER THE HAWTHORN TREE
Ireland in the 1840s is devastated by famine. When tragedy strikes their family, Eily, Michael and Peggy are left to fend for themselves. Starving and in danger of being sent to the workhouse, they escape. Their only hope is to find the great-aunts they have heard about in their mother’s stories. With tremendous courage, they set out on a journey that will test every reserve of strength, love and loyalty they possess.
WILDFLOWER GIRL
When she was only seven, Peggy made a terrifying journey, with her sister Eily and brother Michael, through famine-torn Ireland. Now she sets out on another dangerous and frightening journey – to America. Crossing the Atlantic takes six long, uncomfortable weeks. What will Peggy find when she gets to the New World? And will she ever see her homeland and her beloved sister and brother again?
Copyright
This eBook edition first published 2013 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,
12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland.
Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.obrien.ie
First published in hardback in 1996 by The O’Brien Press Ltd.
First paperback edition 1997.
Reprinted 1998, 1999 (twice), 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, 2007 (twice), 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-84717-602-8
Copyright for text © Marita Conlon-McKenna
Copyright for editing, layout, illustrations and design
© The O’Brien Press Ltd
UNAUTHORISED COPYING IS ILLEGAL
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, visual or audio, or mounted on any network servers, without permission in writing from the publisher. Carrying out any unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution. For permission to copy any part of this publication contact The O’Brien Press Ltd at [email protected].
Typesetting, editing, design, layout: The O’Brien Press Ltd
Internal illustrations: Donald Teskey
Cover illustration: PJ Lynch
The O’Brien Press receives assistance from
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