Chapter 5 Summary

Janet and Meg are delighted when they learn that their cousin from Scotland, Lachlan, is going to come and live with them. Lachlan's father, who was the oldest of five children, was killed in a mining accident. The McIvor girls have heard stories about life in Scotland from their mother, although they have never been there. All of the family, even the women, worked in the mines back then. Their backyard had been very small, especially contrasted with their current twenty acres in Australia. The brothers would come home from the mines so covered in black pit dirt that only their eyes and teeth showed. Ellen watched the dead-end life suck the spirit from the young men and decided she wanted out. She beams when she speaks of meeting Jock and is very excited to see Lachlan, someone fresh from the old country...