Plot
Kit and her Aunt Millie are visiting Kit's older brother Charlie where he works at Mammoth Springs (he's in the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the programs started to ease the effects of the Depression). Part of Charlie's job includes tearing down houses sold to the government, because they're now part of the Mammoth Caves park property thanks to eminent domain. Some of the former owners were less than pleased. Kit sees a burned building, which Charlie says was the work of an arsonist. Charlie also finds a venomous copperhead snake hidden in his footlocker, clearly on purpose. It's evident someone is angry with the CCC.
One family impacted by Charlie's work is that of Aunt Millie's friend, Pearl Thatcher. She and her family, which includes her frail ninety-three-year-old mother-in-law, have three weeks to leave the farm they've been living on for decades, which is so well-run and and self-sufficient that's it's been Depression-proof. Kit learns more about the soon-to-be-former residents of the land through Benny, who's been giving tours of the caves his whole life but will soon be forced to move. It's especially hard for his family, because they've been renting their land rather than owning so they won't get any money when the leave, and because Benny's great-great-grandfather, a slave, was integral in discovering the cave system. During a (segregated) church service, one member delivers an impassioned speech about resisting the government's mandate to move. It seems there are a lot of angry people who might take their frustrations out on the CCC workers.
Kit gets a chance to visit Charlie one day, and just as she's talking with him about her worries that he might be in danger, a work truck goes up in flames. A few nights later, there's a fire in the woods near the Thatchers' house, threatening to burn it or their neighbors' houses down. Kit splits her time between working the fireman brigade effort and watching over the elderly Mrs. Thatcher (her granddaughter, Dorothy Ann, watches her at other times). While with Mrs. Thatcher, Kit discovers a sack of matches and turpentine-soaked rags hidden behind some curtains--the arsonist's tools. There's no one to inform though; everyone's away fighting the fire. Kit eventually falls asleep. She rouses in the morning, still alone, and finds Mrs. Thatcher has passed away in the night.
A park ranger arrives just as the family finds out about their matriarch's passing, just in time to hear Dorothy Ann confess to start last night's fire: Mrs. Thatcher had made her promise to let her be able to die in the home where she was born. Dorothy started only the one fire to try to delay her family's eviction, not realizing how it would spread and how dangerous it could be. The ranger informs the family that their church (on park grounds) will be staying, so the grandmother can be buried in its cemetery...and that as penance, Dorothy Ann is to knit warm wool socks for every worker. As another person confessed to the first fire, he knows she wasn't responsible. Relieved to not have a prison sentence, she agrees. Her parents also let her know that they've found a farm a few miles away to move to.
As Kit gets ready to leave, she realizes how the snake got into Charlie's footlocker: he left his wet boots outside to dry in the sun, the snake crawled in, and he brought his boots inside. In turn, Charlie tells Kit the incident with the truck was a mechanical failure, not sabotage. With the mystery solved, Kit and Aunt Millie board the train back to Cincinnati--with a kitten each, a gift from their new friends in Kentucky.
Kit and her Aunt Millie are visiting Kit's older brother Charlie where he works at Mammoth Springs (he's in the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the programs started to ease the effects of the Depression). Part of Charlie's job includes tearing down houses sold to the government, because they're now part of the Mammoth Caves park property thanks to eminent domain. Some of the former owners were less than pleased. Kit sees a burned building, which Charlie says was the work of an arsonist. Charlie also finds a venomous copperhead snake hidden in his footlocker, clearly on purpose. It's evident someone is angry with the CCC.
One family impacted by Charlie's work is that of Aunt Millie's friend, Pearl Thatcher. She and her family, which includes her frail ninety-three-year-old mother-in-law, have three weeks to leave the farm they've been living on for decades, which is so well-run and and self-sufficient that's it's been Depression-proof. Kit learns more about the soon-to-be-former residents of the land through Benny, who's been giving tours of the caves his whole life but will soon be forced to move. It's especially hard for his family, because they've been renting their land rather than owning so they won't get any money when the leave, and because Benny's great-great-grandfather, a slave, was integral in discovering the cave system. During a (segregated) church service, one member delivers an impassioned speech about resisting the government's mandate to move. It seems there are a lot of angry people who might take their frustrations out on the CCC workers.
Kit gets a chance to visit Charlie one day, and just as she's talking with him about her worries that he might be in danger, a work truck goes up in flames. A few nights later, there's a fire in the woods near the Thatchers' house, threatening to burn it or their neighbors' houses down. Kit splits her time between working the fireman brigade effort and watching over the elderly Mrs. Thatcher (her granddaughter, Dorothy Ann, watches her at other times). While with Mrs. Thatcher, Kit discovers a sack of matches and turpentine-soaked rags hidden behind some curtains--the arsonist's tools. There's no one to inform though; everyone's away fighting the fire. Kit eventually falls asleep. She rouses in the morning, still alone, and finds Mrs. Thatcher has passed away in the night.
A park ranger arrives just as the family finds out about their matriarch's passing, just in time to hear Dorothy Ann confess to start last night's fire: Mrs. Thatcher had made her promise to let her be able to die in the home where she was born. Dorothy started only the one fire to try to delay her family's eviction, not realizing how it would spread and how dangerous it could be. The ranger informs the family that their church (on park grounds) will be staying, so the grandmother can be buried in its cemetery...and that as penance, Dorothy Ann is to knit warm wool socks for every worker. As another person confessed to the first fire, he knows she wasn't responsible. Relieved to not have a prison sentence, she agrees. Her parents also let her know that they've found a farm a few miles away to move to.
As Kit gets ready to leave, she realizes how the snake got into Charlie's footlocker: he left his wet boots outside to dry in the sun, the snake crawled in, and he brought his boots inside. In turn, Charlie tells Kit the incident with the truck was a mechanical failure, not sabotage. With the mystery solved, Kit and Aunt Millie board the train back to Cincinnati--with a kitten each, a gift from their new friends in Kentucky.
Inside Kit's World
The Civilian Conservation Corps was hugely important to the development of our national parks system, building trails and lodges, maintaining the environment, and making sure the lands would be preserved for future generations to enjoy.
Misc
Dedicated to Winnie and Vivian, "and all who pursue life with courage and curiosity."
We watched a neighbors' house while they went on a vacation that include a trip to Mammoth Caves. They gave me a piece of iron pyrite (fools' gold) from there.
I like how Kit isn't quite used to the more formal way people in the South speak, reminding herself to say "sir" and "ma'am" and feeling more comfortable asking people to call her by her first name rather than using honorifics. It's an accurate representation of how two people with different versions of "polite" interact.
Venomous animals inject their toxins purposely, typically by biting. Poison is toxin that has to be touched or ingested (e.g.; touching a poison dart frog or eating hemlock). While an animal can be both, like the slow loris which rubs toxins secreted from its elbows on its fur (poisonous) and licks the toxins to deliver a deadly bite (venomous), venomous and poisonous are not synonymous.
Calico cats are almost always female.
Kit keeps excusing Charlie's working for the CCC to the residents as "doing as he's told" or "doing his job." In about ten years, "following orders" isn't going to be a good excuse...
Dorothy Ann is 16 and her grandmother is 93. That's a big age gap, 77 years. Her brother is a little older. My grandmothers were 51 and 65 years older than I, and I wasn't the first grandchild on either side.
While it's true that elderly people can get confusion from dementia, senility, and other age-related memory problems, a sudden onset can also be caused by a urinary tract infection.
There really is a church with a cemetery in Mammoth Caves National Park.
The CCC didn't just work on national parks--there's a bench at St. Edward State Park (in Kirkland, WA) engraved with the CCC's logo.
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