Stepping down from the wagon in Marilla's front yard is Mother Ann's old friend Julie and her daughter Cinda. Mother and Julie had met on a wagon train when they were 10, and now they'd be neighbors again.
The summer flies by on wings of laughter. There are games with the Parfitt family, a big Fourth of July picnic, and a work bee to ready Sweet Briar School for classes. Being eighth graders is especially exciting for Marilla and Cinda. But hundreds of miles away battles being fought are touching their lives in Wisconsin. Then both Marilla's and Cinda's fathers enlist to help President Lincoln, and the war seems close indeed.
This is Marilla's story--the second in the series of six true stories about Adventist girls: Ann, Marilla, Grace, Ruth, Elaine, and Erin. Ann was born in 1851. Her great, great granddaughter, Erin, is a teenager today. When Erin was born, grandmother Ruth wanted her to know that she was a sixth-generation Adventist, as well as a thirteenth-generation American girl whose ancestors helped to establish their country. But most of all she wanted Erin to know that her greatest heritage is that she is a child of the heavenly King and so are you.