Clearing Weather

Young Nicholas Drury has his hands full between looking after his ailing uncle and tending to the family business, a Massachusetts shipyard. Since the recent end of the Revolutionary War, shipbuilding is in decline and everyone in the town of Brascombe is feeling the economic pinch. Just as Nicholas is on the verge of giving up and declaring bankruptcy, he notices footprints in his backyard that lead him to new friends, a dangerous secret, and a plan to restore the community's fortunes.
This Newbery Honor–winning novel for young readers recaptures the nation's anxious mood in the years that followed its newly won independence. The tale of an entire town pulling together and pitching in to build a great trading ship echoes the spirit of the American Revolution, and its account of the vessel's two-year adventure to the Caribbean and China reflects the young country's growing engagement with the wider world. Numerous atmospheric black-and-white illustrations add to the story's historical flavor.

Children's author Cornelia Meigs (1884–1973) was an English teacher as well as a historian and critic of children's literature. Her 1933 biography of Louisa May Alcott, Invincible Louisa, won the Newbery Medal, and her three Newbery Honor books include The Windy Hill, which is also available from Dover.

Contents I     Hoar Frost   3II    A Chaise and Four   21III   The Marsh Road   46IV   "Of Berkeley County"   75V    White Oak and Meadow Larks   101VI   The Great Enterprise   126VII  Sunrise off Branscomb Head   152VIII Silver Trumpets   180IX    Wickananish   208X     The Top of the Tide   235XI    The Country of Scrimbshw Work   256XII   Gunfire   281XIII  Far Visions   301