Calico Bush

by Rachel Field

On board the ship Isabella B.

"The men lifted and laid the great brown logs in place."

The Maypole

Illustrated by Allen Lewis

*Calico Bush* and Me

	When I was ten, my mother, Dorothy Waldo Stapler, gave me her copy of Calico Bush, which had been signed by the author, Rachel Field. I loved the story so much I read it many times and even memorized the poem 'Maypole Point'

About Rachel Field Rachel Lyman Field (born 19 Sept. 1894, died 15 March 1942) and her personal signature courtesy of G. Ware Rachel Field -Wikipedia Rachel Field - Cranberry Island Historical Society	About Calico Bush First Published in 1931 Newberry Honor Book
Setting 1743 Penobscot Bay, Maine, on the coast near Sunday Island looking towards Mt Desert Island. "Maggie often turned her eyes to the distant line of the Mount Desert hills..."	Characters Marguerite LeDoux 13 year old orphan from France, 'bound-out girl' to Joel and Dolly Sargent their children: Caleb 13, Becky & Susan, 6 year old twins, Patty, 4 Jacob, 3 Debbie, 8 months Uncle Ira Sargent Pumpkin, the dog Aunt Hepsa Jordan from Sunday Island her nephew, Seth Jordan, and his son Ethan Jordan The Welleses, neighbors to the east
Delectable Mountains Quilts The quilt Aunt Hepsa was quilting...	Maypole Point Wherever you go in the State of Maine You'll come across some old French strain– A scarlet thread in the sober skein Of later settlers, since first Champlain Charted those islands of the sea In the name of France and the Fleur-de-Lis... These are the facts, and precious few, Of a certain Marguerite Ledoux, A Bound-out Girl, thirteen or so, To Dolly Sargent, and her man Joe, And their brood of children, born and bred in the pleasant port of Marblehead. No one knows what set them forth Picking a course part east, part north... But she is a legend, none the less A flowering sprig in the wilderness, A name blown out of years ago, A sprightly phantom in calico This is her story, and this is why I think of her when tides run high...
Another Maine book by Rachel Field Hitty, Her First Hundred Years Newberry Medal Winner, 1930 Hitty Preble Hitty's Home a book I loved almost as much as Calico Bush! Other Books by Rachel Field	Maypole Point Little Cranberry Isle Maypole Point by Mary Winslow Smyth, 1927 John Standley's gravestone. It was late in October that in the gathering dusk, after days of rain, we walked from the village toward the Maypole Point, where in the beginning Marguerite LaCroix, French wife of an early settler, set up her maypole and inaugurated the festivities of her youth. John and Marguerite La Croix Stanley; first permanent settlers on Little Cranberry Isle, whose hearth stones still remain undisturbed in the field just north of the Head. Both John and Marguerite are buried on Maypole Point....All that is known of Marguerite is that she was very beautiful, with dark eyes and jet black hair; that it was she who introduced May Day festivities to the islanders, who, for many years, on the first of that month gathered around a May pole erected on the south-west part of Little Cranberry, still known as Maypole Point....Descendants of John and Marguerite, now in the eighth generation, are today living in the town. Could this bit of history have been what gave Rachel Field the idea for Calico Bush?

About Rachel Field

Rachel Lyman Field
(born 19 Sept. 1894, died 15 March 1942)
and her personal signature
courtesy of G. Ware

Rachel Field -Wikipedia

Rachel Field - Cranberry Island Historical Society

About Calico Bush

First Published in 1931

Newberry Honor Book

Setting

1743

Penobscot Bay, Maine, on the coast near
Sunday Island looking towards Mt Desert Island.

"Maggie often turned her eyes to the distant line of the Mount Desert hills..."

Characters

Marguerite LeDoux 13 year old orphan from France,
'bound-out girl' to

Joel and Dolly Sargent

their children: Caleb 13,
Becky & Susan, 6 year old twins,
Patty, 4
Jacob, 3
Debbie, 8 months

Uncle Ira Sargent
Pumpkin, the dog

Aunt Hepsa Jordan from Sunday Island
her nephew, Seth Jordan, and his son Ethan Jordan

The Welleses, neighbors to the east

Delectable Mountains Quilts

The quilt Aunt Hepsa was quilting...

Maypole Point

Wherever you go in the State of Maine
You'll come across some old French strain–
A scarlet thread in the sober skein
Of later settlers, since first Champlain
Charted those islands of the sea
In the name of France and the Fleur-de-Lis...

These are the facts, and precious few,
Of a certain Marguerite Ledoux,
A Bound-out Girl, thirteen or so,
To Dolly Sargent, and her man Joe,
And their brood of children, born and bred
in the pleasant port of Marblehead.
No one knows what set them forth
Picking a course part east, part north...

But she is a legend, none the less
A flowering sprig in the wilderness,
A name blown out of years ago,
A sprightly phantom in calico

This is her story, and this is why
I think of her when tides run high...

Another Maine book
by Rachel Field

Hitty, Her First Hundred Years
Newberry Medal Winner, 1930

Hitty Preble

Hitty's Home

a book I loved almost as much as Calico Bush!

Other Books by Rachel Field

Maypole Point

Little Cranberry Isle

Maypole Point
by Mary Winslow Smyth, 1927

John Standley's gravestone. It was late in October that in the gathering dusk, after days of rain, we walked from the village toward the Maypole Point, where in the beginning Marguerite LaCroix, French wife of an early settler, set up her maypole and inaugurated the festivities of her youth.

John and Marguerite La Croix Stanley; first permanent settlers on Little Cranberry Isle, whose hearth stones still remain undisturbed in the field just north of the Head. Both John and Marguerite are buried on Maypole Point....All that is known of Marguerite is that she was very beautiful, with dark eyes and jet black hair; that it was she who introduced May Day festivities to the islanders, who, for many years, on the first of that month gathered around a May pole erected on the south-west part of Little Cranberry, still known as Maypole Point....Descendants of John and Marguerite, now in the eighth generation, are today living in the town.

Could this bit of history have been what gave Rachel Field the idea for Calico Bush?

A 'Delectable Mountains' Quilt

Editions of Calico Bush

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the Mountain or Sheep Laurel, called Calico Bush