Patricia Clapp
Constance A Story of Early Plymouth
Hardcover
(Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Aug. 16, 1969)
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.