Fifteen-year-old Hetty and the toddler, Emily, had six sisters between them of all ages, including the young twins. With father gone, their Mother, with the help of her eight girls, managed to make a living for all of them on their mountain farm. Every youngster had chores, according to her age, and even in the winter, in their long underwear, they took care of the animals in the barn. All the fun was there, too, and the apple butter they made never tasted so good, and the maple sugar on white snow was better than ice cream. When Mother became the neighborhood mid-wife, there was excitement in hitching the horses to go to a distant farm in the middle of the night. It was a difficult life, but the first flowers of the spring and close companionship of working together, made it all seem full of satisfaction and joy.