Other editions of book Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth

"An absorbing historical romance."—Booklist"Constance is an engaging, high-spirited heroine . . . A fine historical novel written with verve and fresh imagination."—Horn BookRunner-up for the National Book Award for Children's Literature in 1969, Constance is a classic of historical young adult fiction, recounting the daily life, hardships, romances, and marriage of a young girl during the early years of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth.

"An absorbing historical romance."—Booklist"Constance is an engaging, high-spirited heroine . . . A fine historical novel written with verve and fresh imagination."—Horn BookRunner-up for the National Book Award for Children's Literature in 1969, Constance is a classic of historical young adult fiction, recounting the daily life, hardships, romances, and marriage of a young girl during the early years of the Pilgrim settlement at Plymouth.

The Indians started some sort of rhythmic chanting, with a clapping of their hands to accent it, and I sat a little apart at, one of the fires listening. It was a strange sound that somehow sent my blood pulsing more quickly and made me wish I could stand up and dance round and round the fire, but this I knew would not be fitting. Of a sudden I was aware of someone beside me, and turning, saw Ted Leister easing himself down to the ground. I thought it best to say nothing of the disagreement he and t'other Ted had, so I spoke of the singing. "It nigh makes me giddy," I said. "'Tis not at all like English singing." "If it makes you giddy, lie back and close your eyes," Ted Leister told me. "'Twill soon pass." I did as he suggested, and I could feel the very earth under me throbbing from the beat and beat and beat of the voices and hands. My eyes were closed, but the dizziness got no better and I moved to sit up when I felt Ted's hand push me gently back again, and then he kissed me.

The girl standing on the swaying deck of the Mayflower in November, 1620, could not share her father's enthusiasm for the life ahead. Fourteen years old, intelligent and outspoken, Constance Hopkins does not hide her apprehension about the life to come. In a journal given to her by her stepmother, she records her observations and feelings from the first dreadful winter when sickness killed half of the settlers to the time of her marriage at twenty. Constance relates the important events as well as the petty detail of daily living her fear and growing understanding of Indians, the first flirtations, her care of younger brothers and sisters, and her changing relationship with her stepmother. Like any girl in any age, she worries about her appearance and a lack of pretty clothes. She confide s her may questions about love and marriage.