Hurrah for New England!

A Virginia boy's holiday begins with a doctor's unusual advice: his older brother should exchange comfortable living for hard work aboard a fishing vessel. Pidgie Beverley eagerly joins Clarendon and writes to their cousin Bennie from Marblehead in July 1846. His letters notice crooked streets, independent children and unfamiliar customs, while Clarendon struggles with plain food, early mornings and the prospect of dressing like a sailor.

Cornelia L. Tuthill gives this children's story the conversational shape of family correspondence. A visit to a grand steamer contrasts carpets and mirrors with life aboard the fishing schooner Go-Ahead. David, the owner's son, explains the machinery and moves confidently among people whose opinions trouble Clarendon. These encounters make the vacation a lesson in judging people by their abilities rather than their social position. Readers interested in coastal life and childhood in nineteenth-century New England will find those subjects in Pidgie's observations and his brother's complaints.