What do you think?
Rate this book
The Little Maid's Historical Series #4
A Little Maid of Bunker Hill
The story of a little girl during the Battle of Bunker Hill, in the American Revolution.
239 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1916
56 people want to read
About the author
Alice Turner Curtis
71 books23 followersChildren's and young adult historical fiction author Alice Turner Curtis was born in Sullivan, Hancock County, Maine, USA. Her maiden name is Alice L. Turner. She is listed in the Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books. Her father was a sailmaker. She was married (in Boston on 20 May 1895) to Irving Curtis (18 Jan 1835 – 18 Nov 1910). Her parents (both born in Maine) were John Vinal Turner and Susan Ann Spear. Alice lived her life in Maine and Massachusetts (notably, in Boston). She had been in the literary profession since at least 1895 (with Marjorie's Way being her first known book, published in 1904).
Alice Turner Curtis is the author of "The Little Maid's Historical Series", originally published, during the period from 1910 to 1937. Reprinted by Knopf in the 1940's and 1950's with illustrations by Sandra James. Some books were reprinted by Applewood in the 1990's with the original illustrations. One book containing two original stories was printed by Derrydale Books in 1991. She is also known for the Grandpa's Little Girls series, The Yankee Girl Civil War Stories, the Frontier Girl series, The Little Heroine series, the Marjorie series, the Little Runnaways series, and other books.
Alice Turner Curtis is the author of "The Little Maid's Historical Series", originally published, during the period from 1910 to 1937. Reprinted by Knopf in the 1940's and 1950's with illustrations by Sandra James. Some books were reprinted by Applewood in the 1990's with the original illustrations. One book containing two original stories was printed by Derrydale Books in 1991. She is also known for the Grandpa's Little Girls series, The Yankee Girl Civil War Stories, the Frontier Girl series, The Little Heroine series, the Marjorie series, the Little Runnaways series, and other books.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 10, 2019
Here's the edition that I read: https://archive.org/details/littlemai...
Summary:
This book recounts the story of Millicent Austin (AKA Milly), a girl whose tenth birthday is at the beginning of the story (and her eleventh near the end). She lives in a house near Bunker Hill with her parents and two younger siblings (Dicky, or Richard, and Prue, or Prudence, who are twins).
Millicent and her family go to visit her Grandmother Barclay’s house in Roxbury for her birthday, in early September of 1774. There, she is met by Christopher (a servant), her grandmother, her cousin Mary (who is 12 at the time), and her aunt Prudence. Mary eggs Millicent on to do some mischief with her (they go to ride some horses that they shouldn't try to ride, but instead the horses get free and run away). So, they go and try to catch the horses, but the horses run off when they get close. Eventually, they get dirty and clothes are torn. Millie realizes that Mary has vanished, and so she continues on, on her own, to find the horses—but she meets with two British soldiers (her family is on the American side, and they are Americans). She doesn’t think to tell the soldiers about the horses, but she does tell them the rest. One of the soldiers is kind, and the other doesn’t seem as kind. The kind one helps to bring her home, and the other one goes off (and we don’t see him again until near the end of the book).
Anyway, when Millicent gets home, Christopher recognizes the soldier is British and tries to rally against him (but then he realizes he has brought Millicent home). She misses out on her birthday dinner (including the cake). She doesn’t tell her family about the mischief at this time, and Mary doesn’t want her to tell. The family seems to think the horses just got out, until after Millicent and her family go home when then they hear about how the kind solider (whose name was Frances was found with the British with the horses). So, everyone thinks he stole them (when he says he just found them).
So, Millicent has a guilty conscience through much of the book. She tries to convince her mother (at least three or four times) that soldier Frances did not steal the horses (for her mother thinks he did), but she doesn’t say why.
At some point, I’m not sure if it’s here, Millicent confesses to her mother what really happened.
One day, her cousin Mary comes to visit and helps get Mary into more trouble by egging her on to make apple jelly right away, against Millicent’s mother's wishes (they were supposed to let the juice go through the cloth, which would take at least a day or so, so the jelly wouldn’t be cloudy, but Mary liked the idea of cloudy jelly). Millicent accidentally spills all the juice as she's boiling it, and scalds her foot. Mary does other mischief on her own during her stay, but eventually goes home.
Millicent meets a boy named Sammy Craft (Samuel Adams Craft) who plays the drum. He teaches her how to play and at some point gives her a drum (probably not right away).
Some time after Millicent is better, she decides she needs to take matters into her own hands in clearing soldier Frances’s good name and getting the horses back to her relatives. So, she goes off on her own to see General Gage (the general who is over soldier Frances). She coincidentally finds soldier Frances first, who gives her breakfast and goes to buy her a hat. General Gage comes upon them while their going to buy a hat, and then she hurriedly approaches and talks with him. Soldier Frances’s name is cleared, but General Gage basically says if her relatives aren't rebels, they'll get their horses back. Soldier Frances helps take Millicent home, and she is disappointed about the horses.
At some point (I’m not sure if it’s here or earlier), Millicent writes to her grandmother about the horse incident and confesses her part in the mischief (she doesn’t mention Mary). Her grandmother later writes back (after some of the stuff that I’m going to explain) that the horses were restored to her (and she forgives Millicent, but Millicent is upset that she didn’t intuitive realize that Mary had some part in it).
At some point, Millicent, Sammy and I think Dicky, go sledding on Bunker Hill (they previously sledded closer to home, without Sammy). They meet a girl named Polly whose father is a tory (a British sympathizer). She has a nice red sled, which apparently identifies her as a tory. She doesn’t really know what a tory is, nor what a rebel is, but she knows rebels are on the opposite side and calls people rebels who call her a tory. After some discomfort and awkwardness, they make friends with Polly, but some boys think Millicent is a Tory while she’s watching Polly’s sled as Polly and the others go down on their sled (for everyone but Polly refused to go down on Polly’s nicer-looking sled with a swan motif, on account of its coming from Britain; however, they did race her, and won). Sammy deals with the boys. Then after the boys run off, they talk. Then they realize that someone stole both of their sleds.
Millicent’s sled is eventually restored, but Polly’s isn’t (to Millicent’s knowledge).
They find a wounded dog, eventually, which they help to nurse back to health (as far as they can, but he’s able to do well with three feet). They call him Blacky.
They also find a sparrow caught in a snare. They free it, but it is injured. So, they keep it and take care of it. The sparrow helps Millicent with her bird calls.
They learn about a certain trade that plays lots of instruments, comes up with games, makes animal sounds, etc. to entertain people, and Millicent and her siblings want to do that. So, they work at learning musical instruments and making bird sounds. Dicky learns to play the flute (their father has one, which he eventually gives to Dicky). The children perform at school They go on a trip somewhere and a person of authority wants to watch the children perform (it should be noted that Blacky followed them, without their knowing until they got there). Apparently, Blacky has been trained to do tricks and perform, for he does them during Millicent’s performance, and steals the show (although people still have praise for Millicent).
The not-so-kind-seeming soldier apparently is the true owner of Blacky (who calls him Jerry). He hears about the dog and comes to the Austin’s house to get it, claiming that Millicent stole the dog in Boston. They tell the man what happened and let him have him dog (which is afraid of him; it should be noted that it was suspected before this point that Blacky did not like his previous home). Millicent is upset about the dog situation.
Eventually, Blacky returns, unannounced. The children are happy and guard the dog for about a week when they start to relax. Then, Sammy comes to the door saying that the man is coming for his dog. However, soldier Frances is the one to come to the door. Millicent stays in her tree house and her father is away. Her mother and siblings make no mention of the dog (and soldier Frances doesn’t ask). Soldier Frances goes back to the other soldier and says they said nothing about the dog and that he didn’t see it there. Then he offers him a deal, in which he’ll pay buy the dog from him, so that if it is ever found, it will be his. The other soldier agrees. Soldier Frances goes back to the house and tells the family of this. He meets Millicent and they talk. He gives her the dog.
Earlier in the story, Millicent had aspired to help in the war, somehow, and then aspired to help with her drum-playing, somehow.
Dicky lets the sparrow go to see if it’s well, and it is appreciative and flies away.
Millicent and her family (as well as Blacky) go to visit their Grandmother, aunt and cousin Mary, at a different house which is astonishingly almost exactly like their grandmother’s. Millicent does not want to go, because she’s worried about meeting Mary, and how Mary might be upset with her and/or get her into more fixes. Before this point, however, her Mother had a talk with her and helped her to understand that she shouldn’t do things just because everyone else does them—so she shouldn’t do bad things and blame it on Mary for egging her on to do it. However, she still doesn’t want to see Mary.
It turns out, however, that Mary is happy to see her (although not at first happy to see Blacky, for she is afraid of dogs, much as one might be afraid of lions), although Mary has not yet told the truth to her family. Mary soon loses her fear of Blacky and then he is allowed to stay in the house (Christopher had been taking care of him in the barn or something). Eventually, Mary has a surprise for Millicent, and tells the truth to her grandmother. And then, Millicent and Mary are good friends and Mary stops getting into mischief. The aforementioned guilt is gone from the book.
At some point, Millicent and Mary start going by Milly and Molly (I believe this was much much earlier, and it was definitely before Mary told the truth).
While staying with the Barclay family, apparently, there’s a need to rouse the local troops, and they needed to find a drummer to rouse them. Milly rises to the task immediately (and no one tries to stop her, but rather someone, I think her granmother Barclay, encourages her), and she rouses enough people to where they rouse everyone else. She is honored for her speed with the situation and for helping.
They stay with their relatives while their father goes to war (they stay for quite a long time).
They have a bon fire.
The battle of Bunker Hill happens. A certain man, whom the children respected, died. Lots of houses got burned.
Milly writes a letter to soldier Frances. She doesn’t get a response.
Molly wants Mary to stay and is worried that Mary won't miss her (but that isn't true and Mary tells her so).
Quite some time later, Milly finds that they can go back home. Their home wasn’t burned. Her father was wounded, but not killed.
Eventually, they hear that Frances decided to join the Americans and that he was staying at their house with their father. They go back home, and they find that Frances came to her house because of her letter (hoping they would take him in). He is wounded.
Milly’s siblings think they hear the sparrow singing outside sometimes.
Milly has another birthday (a happy one, this time), with a cake.
Review:
I thought this was a great book.
Cautions: It should be noted that two of the characters don’t always do the right thing (but they eventually come around to it), and that the main characters gives into peer pressure, and though she eventually realizes that this is wrong, it’s a long time in coming (as is the full repentance of the two characters). So, you'll probably want to make sure that whoever starts the book finishes it, if you want them to have a good example. That could be said of many books/movies, however.
The prolonged guilt from the wrongdoings makes the read less joyful than I might have liked (certainly less so than the previous books in the Little Maid's Historical Series), but I think the characters learn valuable lessons, and having finished the book, I don’t still feel that guilt lingering, but I feel good instead.
The illustrations were nice.
Summary:
This book recounts the story of Millicent Austin (AKA Milly), a girl whose tenth birthday is at the beginning of the story (and her eleventh near the end). She lives in a house near Bunker Hill with her parents and two younger siblings (Dicky, or Richard, and Prue, or Prudence, who are twins).
Millicent and her family go to visit her Grandmother Barclay’s house in Roxbury for her birthday, in early September of 1774. There, she is met by Christopher (a servant), her grandmother, her cousin Mary (who is 12 at the time), and her aunt Prudence. Mary eggs Millicent on to do some mischief with her (they go to ride some horses that they shouldn't try to ride, but instead the horses get free and run away). So, they go and try to catch the horses, but the horses run off when they get close. Eventually, they get dirty and clothes are torn. Millie realizes that Mary has vanished, and so she continues on, on her own, to find the horses—but she meets with two British soldiers (her family is on the American side, and they are Americans). She doesn’t think to tell the soldiers about the horses, but she does tell them the rest. One of the soldiers is kind, and the other doesn’t seem as kind. The kind one helps to bring her home, and the other one goes off (and we don’t see him again until near the end of the book).
Anyway, when Millicent gets home, Christopher recognizes the soldier is British and tries to rally against him (but then he realizes he has brought Millicent home). She misses out on her birthday dinner (including the cake). She doesn’t tell her family about the mischief at this time, and Mary doesn’t want her to tell. The family seems to think the horses just got out, until after Millicent and her family go home when then they hear about how the kind solider (whose name was Frances was found with the British with the horses). So, everyone thinks he stole them (when he says he just found them).
So, Millicent has a guilty conscience through much of the book. She tries to convince her mother (at least three or four times) that soldier Frances did not steal the horses (for her mother thinks he did), but she doesn’t say why.
At some point, I’m not sure if it’s here, Millicent confesses to her mother what really happened.
One day, her cousin Mary comes to visit and helps get Mary into more trouble by egging her on to make apple jelly right away, against Millicent’s mother's wishes (they were supposed to let the juice go through the cloth, which would take at least a day or so, so the jelly wouldn’t be cloudy, but Mary liked the idea of cloudy jelly). Millicent accidentally spills all the juice as she's boiling it, and scalds her foot. Mary does other mischief on her own during her stay, but eventually goes home.
Millicent meets a boy named Sammy Craft (Samuel Adams Craft) who plays the drum. He teaches her how to play and at some point gives her a drum (probably not right away).
Some time after Millicent is better, she decides she needs to take matters into her own hands in clearing soldier Frances’s good name and getting the horses back to her relatives. So, she goes off on her own to see General Gage (the general who is over soldier Frances). She coincidentally finds soldier Frances first, who gives her breakfast and goes to buy her a hat. General Gage comes upon them while their going to buy a hat, and then she hurriedly approaches and talks with him. Soldier Frances’s name is cleared, but General Gage basically says if her relatives aren't rebels, they'll get their horses back. Soldier Frances helps take Millicent home, and she is disappointed about the horses.
At some point (I’m not sure if it’s here or earlier), Millicent writes to her grandmother about the horse incident and confesses her part in the mischief (she doesn’t mention Mary). Her grandmother later writes back (after some of the stuff that I’m going to explain) that the horses were restored to her (and she forgives Millicent, but Millicent is upset that she didn’t intuitive realize that Mary had some part in it).
At some point, Millicent, Sammy and I think Dicky, go sledding on Bunker Hill (they previously sledded closer to home, without Sammy). They meet a girl named Polly whose father is a tory (a British sympathizer). She has a nice red sled, which apparently identifies her as a tory. She doesn’t really know what a tory is, nor what a rebel is, but she knows rebels are on the opposite side and calls people rebels who call her a tory. After some discomfort and awkwardness, they make friends with Polly, but some boys think Millicent is a Tory while she’s watching Polly’s sled as Polly and the others go down on their sled (for everyone but Polly refused to go down on Polly’s nicer-looking sled with a swan motif, on account of its coming from Britain; however, they did race her, and won). Sammy deals with the boys. Then after the boys run off, they talk. Then they realize that someone stole both of their sleds.
Millicent’s sled is eventually restored, but Polly’s isn’t (to Millicent’s knowledge).
They find a wounded dog, eventually, which they help to nurse back to health (as far as they can, but he’s able to do well with three feet). They call him Blacky.
They also find a sparrow caught in a snare. They free it, but it is injured. So, they keep it and take care of it. The sparrow helps Millicent with her bird calls.
They learn about a certain trade that plays lots of instruments, comes up with games, makes animal sounds, etc. to entertain people, and Millicent and her siblings want to do that. So, they work at learning musical instruments and making bird sounds. Dicky learns to play the flute (their father has one, which he eventually gives to Dicky). The children perform at school They go on a trip somewhere and a person of authority wants to watch the children perform (it should be noted that Blacky followed them, without their knowing until they got there). Apparently, Blacky has been trained to do tricks and perform, for he does them during Millicent’s performance, and steals the show (although people still have praise for Millicent).
The not-so-kind-seeming soldier apparently is the true owner of Blacky (who calls him Jerry). He hears about the dog and comes to the Austin’s house to get it, claiming that Millicent stole the dog in Boston. They tell the man what happened and let him have him dog (which is afraid of him; it should be noted that it was suspected before this point that Blacky did not like his previous home). Millicent is upset about the dog situation.
Eventually, Blacky returns, unannounced. The children are happy and guard the dog for about a week when they start to relax. Then, Sammy comes to the door saying that the man is coming for his dog. However, soldier Frances is the one to come to the door. Millicent stays in her tree house and her father is away. Her mother and siblings make no mention of the dog (and soldier Frances doesn’t ask). Soldier Frances goes back to the other soldier and says they said nothing about the dog and that he didn’t see it there. Then he offers him a deal, in which he’ll pay buy the dog from him, so that if it is ever found, it will be his. The other soldier agrees. Soldier Frances goes back to the house and tells the family of this. He meets Millicent and they talk. He gives her the dog.
Earlier in the story, Millicent had aspired to help in the war, somehow, and then aspired to help with her drum-playing, somehow.
Dicky lets the sparrow go to see if it’s well, and it is appreciative and flies away.
Millicent and her family (as well as Blacky) go to visit their Grandmother, aunt and cousin Mary, at a different house which is astonishingly almost exactly like their grandmother’s. Millicent does not want to go, because she’s worried about meeting Mary, and how Mary might be upset with her and/or get her into more fixes. Before this point, however, her Mother had a talk with her and helped her to understand that she shouldn’t do things just because everyone else does them—so she shouldn’t do bad things and blame it on Mary for egging her on to do it. However, she still doesn’t want to see Mary.
It turns out, however, that Mary is happy to see her (although not at first happy to see Blacky, for she is afraid of dogs, much as one might be afraid of lions), although Mary has not yet told the truth to her family. Mary soon loses her fear of Blacky and then he is allowed to stay in the house (Christopher had been taking care of him in the barn or something). Eventually, Mary has a surprise for Millicent, and tells the truth to her grandmother. And then, Millicent and Mary are good friends and Mary stops getting into mischief. The aforementioned guilt is gone from the book.
At some point, Millicent and Mary start going by Milly and Molly (I believe this was much much earlier, and it was definitely before Mary told the truth).
While staying with the Barclay family, apparently, there’s a need to rouse the local troops, and they needed to find a drummer to rouse them. Milly rises to the task immediately (and no one tries to stop her, but rather someone, I think her granmother Barclay, encourages her), and she rouses enough people to where they rouse everyone else. She is honored for her speed with the situation and for helping.
They stay with their relatives while their father goes to war (they stay for quite a long time).
They have a bon fire.
The battle of Bunker Hill happens. A certain man, whom the children respected, died. Lots of houses got burned.
Milly writes a letter to soldier Frances. She doesn’t get a response.
Molly wants Mary to stay and is worried that Mary won't miss her (but that isn't true and Mary tells her so).
Quite some time later, Milly finds that they can go back home. Their home wasn’t burned. Her father was wounded, but not killed.
Eventually, they hear that Frances decided to join the Americans and that he was staying at their house with their father. They go back home, and they find that Frances came to her house because of her letter (hoping they would take him in). He is wounded.
Milly’s siblings think they hear the sparrow singing outside sometimes.
Milly has another birthday (a happy one, this time), with a cake.
Review:
I thought this was a great book.
Cautions: It should be noted that two of the characters don’t always do the right thing (but they eventually come around to it), and that the main characters gives into peer pressure, and though she eventually realizes that this is wrong, it’s a long time in coming (as is the full repentance of the two characters). So, you'll probably want to make sure that whoever starts the book finishes it, if you want them to have a good example. That could be said of many books/movies, however.
The prolonged guilt from the wrongdoings makes the read less joyful than I might have liked (certainly less so than the previous books in the Little Maid's Historical Series), but I think the characters learn valuable lessons, and having finished the book, I don’t still feel that guilt lingering, but I feel good instead.
The illustrations were nice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2015
This was the book that I read when I was a little girl that got me started on my love of history. I've included as many of the "Little Maid" books that I remember reading, but I probably read them all! I've given 5 stars to them all because of their impact on me personally.
February 26, 2021
Inscribed in this book:
Polly Ehrlich
April 3, 1919
42 Beech Rd
Brookline, Mass
My namesake, my great aunt. She was born in 1910.
Polly Ehrlich
April 3, 1919
42 Beech Rd
Brookline, Mass
My namesake, my great aunt. She was born in 1910.
June 12, 2022
Wonderful books given to me by my mother. Little girls helping win the Revolution and learning about history at the same time
May 27, 2008
Really exciting!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews