Sarah, Plain and Tall – Patricia MacLachlan

Sarah, Plain and Tall, a book by Patricia MacLachlan, starts as a sad story and ends happily.

There was a lady who had two children Caleb and Anna. The lady loved singing and so did her husband.

After a few days…….

Something unexpected happened. During the night time all the children were tucked up in their little beds and so were their parents. The next day the man and the children woke up but the lady didn’t wake up. The man tried waking his wife many times but she didn’t respond nor get up. Soon the man realised that his wife had passed away.

The man decided to remarry again and found a woman in Maine. Her name was Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton.

The man wrote a letter to the woman in Maine saying when she would come. Sarah responded saying, “I will come during the spring time. I will come by train wearing a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall“.

Then Caleb wrote a letter to Sarah asking, “Do you sing? “.

“Yes“, responded Sarah.

Caleb and Anna were wondering whether there stepmother would be kind to them. During spring time Sarah arrived and the house was decorated just the way she wanted the house to look like. Sarah also brought her little dog Seal along with her. Sarah loved seeing the sheep, seeing them made her smile. But as Sarah was from Maine she didn’t know how to speak English. If she had to say yes she would say “aei“.

The children’s father taught Sarah how to plough the field, take care of the sheep and so on. As the children had expected, their stepmother Sarah was really kind to them. She took care of them and they all again became united and lived happily.