The Long, Long Trial

The Long, Long Trial records the girlhood experiences of Olivia and proves that poverty need be no hindrance to happiness or to progress. Olivia hilariously sorts her way through a box of clothing from the Ladies Aid Society, jostles her sisters for a place before the cracked mirror, and scrubs floors to stay in school, always keeping her vision “beyond the pail” (the scrub pail, of course).

Willing to work at anything, even furniture making in an academy shop, she stands stoutly by her dete...