With simple
kindness and a listening ear, Hannah Tupper calms Kit's troubled soul and helps her find the
answer to her problems within her own heart.
After the disaster at the dame
school, Kit, "scarcely (knowing) where her feet (are) taking her", runs to the Great
Meadow. Throwing herself upon the grass, she sobs until she can sob no more, after which she
rolls over and is comforted by the sight of "the long grasses swish(ing) gently in the
breeze...(and) the hot sun press(ing) down on her". As Kit lies there, she becomes aware
that there is a presence nearby. It is Hannah Tupper, who says, simply, "Thee did well,
child, to come to the Meadow...there is always a cure here when the heart is
troubled".
Hannah invites Kit to her cottage for corncake and goat's
milk. Through the gentle commiseration of the old woman, Kit is refreshed, and finds herself
pouring out the story of her journey from Barbados and her unhappiness in Connecticut Colony.
"Tears (spring) into Kit's eyes" as she realizes that "no one, since she had come
to America, had ever really wanted to hear about (her) grandfather", and all she had held
dear in her old life. With infinite wisdom, Hannah shows Kit a strange flower from Africa which
she has planted, and which has somehow learned to thrive in an alien environment, and without
pressure or preaching, enables Kit to hear the message of her own heart. Through the
"magic" of Hannah's unconditional love and kindness, Kit finds "a lightness and
freedom she had never known since the day she sailed into Saybrook Harbor", and discovers
the strength to do what she knows she must to set things straight for Mercy and the dame school
(Chapter 9).
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