Overview
Mary Walsingham is the story of a deaf and mute girl (born in 1621) to a well-to-do family in Littleton, England. The reason for her misbehavior remains undetected until she is nine years old, when a Mohawk girl from the colonies comes to work at the manor house. Sky Flower uses her experience with ‘speaking with hands’ (used between traders of different nations and clans) to help Mary communicate.
Mary blossoms as she bonds with her teacher and learns to express herself through hand gestures and later, the written word. Then seven years later, at Sky Flower’s sudden departure, she is grief-stricken. The gift of a new-born foal helps to console her. A year later, Mary devises a plan to rescue her “Angel” from the harsh practices of training horses, while at the same time helping her father with a business transaction. She finds herself on a difficult voyage, wholly unaware of what to expect in a hardscrabble plantation in the Connecticut River Valley.
As she adjusts to the new Puritan culture, Mary learns to be less self-absorbed and more understanding of others. She even figures out ways to help members of her new family. In so doing, she learns to assess the circumstances of her surroundings more rationally and to plan the next stage of her life. A young Dutch sailor complements the cast.
Part II: NOTES ABOUT THE STORY presents a wealth of information about deafness, horses, religious intolerance, colonial settlement of Hartford, Connecticut, and many other topics raised in the narrative.