Puritan Adventure

xiii, 223 pp. Illustrated by Lois Lenski. The Partridge family lives in a Massachusetts Bay Colony settlement. One day, Seaborn and his sister Comfort are very excited to see their Aunt Charity arrive on a ship that has just docked. Aunt Charity dresses much more prettily than their mother or the other women of the settlement, and she has such interesting stories and ideas. Soon, all the children of the settlement love her—but the adults are not so happy. Aunt Charity is aghast to learn that the children in New England know nothing about the way Christmas is celebrated in Old England, so she teaches them about it. Then, she teaches them to go a-shrovin’ on Shrove Tuesday, and the tithing man is horrified again. Aunt Charity is in constant conflict with the leaders of the town, and frequently trying to defend a servant girl who gets herself into trouble all the time. When they are brought before the town elders for judgment, will they be sentenced to be sent to be sent back to Old England on the next ship?