When they hear that Mrs. Farmer is making soup, all the frightenened chickens run for their lives, but Mr. Farmer finds Little Chickie, who has a bad cold, and he takes her to the kitchen for some nice hot vegetable soup.
For almost nine-year-old Hannah Perley of Fairfield, Connecticut, growing up means facing new challenges, both great and small--from saving the life of a baby lamb to helping the family prepare to send her brother Ben to join the colonial soldiers in the American Revolutionary War.
Young Jesse and his family are with a wagon train traveling from Indiana to Oregon when they stop to celebrate the Fourth of July, but Jesse is too young to go hunting with the men so he comes up with his own contribution to the festivities.