Barbara Ladd

As daylight begins to reach the garden, Barbara slips out of her bedroom window with a bundle and a carefully guarded basket. She crosses a pasture, hurries through wet woods and reaches a lake, where she draws a hidden birchbark canoe toward the water. Her mastiff, Keep, follows with eager affection. Charles G. D. Roberts surrounds this determined departure with the scents of bushes, the colours of dawn and the child's shifting feelings of fear and wonder.

Family visits and village friendships give another view of Barbara's life. On a rainy morning, she proposes taking jellies to a sick neighbour while Uncle Bob attends to his calls. Two doctors arrive at the house, turning the day into a gathering, and the following morning brings a paddle across the lake. Set in the colonial period, the novel offers a portrait of a spirited girl through her attachment to animals, her impulsive plans and her close attention to the natural world.