A Lion to Guard Us

The Freebold family—Amanda, her younger brother, Jemmy, her younger sister, Meg, and their mother—live in the home of Mistress Trippet. Mistress Freebold used to work there before falling ill. Since her mother is too sick to work, Amanda, the oldest child, must work in the home while her younger siblings are confined to their room or the back stairs near the kitchen.

After the Trippett family and their servants have been fed and Amanda has finished her tasks for the day, she brings supper to her younger siblings, who have fallen asleep on the back stairs. While they are eating their beef stew and bread with butter, Amanda slips off to see their mother. Mistress Freebold has been in poor health for some time, but just before Christmas, she fell on the stairs and has been confined to her bed ever since. Before it was her mother’s sick room, the whole family lived in the room.

During her visit, Amanda sits beside her mother, takes her hand, and begins to tell her about the sailor who came from America. Her mother doesn’t wake up. Cook chides Amanda for talking to her mother since “[i]t’s like talking to a wall” (10), and Amanda stops narrating her story. Ellie, the maid, offers to sit with her mother while Amanda puts the two younger children to bed and tells them a story.

The two younger children have been moved to a tiny room at the back of the house since they aren’t allowed into their mother’s bedroom while she’s unwell. The room is bare except for a pallet and covers on the floor. Amanda tells them the story of how their parents met, reminds them of the house they used to have, and describes the “New World” as an idyllic place where their fortunes can change for the better, as their father said before he left for Jamestown.

Jemmy asks Amanda to tell the story of the lion door knocker that was on their old house before their father went away to Virginia. The door knocker was a lion’s head that he gave to the children, and he told them the lion would guard them while he was away. Jemmy insists their father gave it to him especially, and he pulls out the small brass lion’s head from under the covers. Amanda tells them about the sailor who came and relays the message that their father has a house ready for them in Virginia. They just need to wait until their mother gets better before they can go to him. After the two younger children are asleep, Amanda goes back to her mother’s room, where she often sits up all night beside her mother’s bed.

After breakfast the next day, Mistress Trippett comes down to the kitchen for her weekly inspection. She is a short woman who wears high heels and a tall, red wig. The servants stand at attention like soldiers as she performs her inspection, peering into the pantry, cupboards, and back stairway. When she sees Meg and Jemmy by the stairs, she smiles and asks Amanda how old they are now. Amanda tells her that Jemmy is now eight and Meg is five. Amanda then asks if they may come into the kitchen, which Cook has forbidden because she doesn’t want “those brats” underfoot. Mistress Trippett agrees, angering Cook. Once Mistress Trippett leaves, Cook demands Amanda fetch water from the pump on the street two doors down.

As she is making her way back to the house with the heavy wooden pail full of water, Amanda hears someone call her name. She turns to see Dr. Crider, who has been tending to her mother. He offers to carry the water for her, but she explains that Cook or Mistress Trippett would scold her if they saw him helping her. Amanda inquires whether he is on his way to see her mother, and he says he is. He asks if she has a father, and she tells him that her father is in America. Dr. Crider states that going to the “New World” is “an old dream” of his (18), and he would go if he were a younger man. The two part ways as Amanda goes into the servant’s entrance in the back while the doctor goes through the front door.

Over a week later, Amanda hears his voice in the house in the late afternoon. She asks Ellie and Cook if he is there. They are initially silent and then Cook tells Amanda to finish her work without answering her question. When it grows dark, Dr. Crider finds Amanda in the kitchen and asks to speak to her alone. He tells her the news that her mother has died. Amanda puts her hands to her mouth in shock, unable to speak. The doctor asks multiple times if she understands what he has told her and if she wants him to tell her siblings. Once Amanda has overcome the initial shock, she takes on the responsibility of sharing the news with her siblings.