Summary Chapter 1 The book begins as Ellen Creighton and her nine-year-old son, Jethro, plant potatoes for the summer crop. Ellen has had twelve children, four of whom have died. She is a tired woman who favors Jethro most of all. Three of Jethro's siblings died from children's paralysis the year Jethro was born, but Jethro managed to escape the disease. Ellen knows he is special, "as if, somehow, Destiny had marked him." They break to …showed first 75 words of 4995 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4995 total…is home too and that they wanted to surprise him. Shadrach tells him that he will help Jethro in the fields until John comes home, and then Jethro will move in with Shadrach and Jenny, to study. Jethro says that the family depends on him, but Shadrach says that his parents want what is best for him and that others can work the fields. Jethro runs up to the house to reunite with his sister.