In the beginning...
  This website is about a book called Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. Hitty is a little doll that was carved out of Mountain Ash wood. Some people say that the wood from a Mountain Ash tree has good luck, and we believe them! Hitty experienced many wonderful and exciting adventures, and she was lost many times. If Hitty had not been made out of Mountain Ash wood, she may not have ever been found when she was lost all those times during her journeys!
  Rachel Field, the author of our book, found a little wooden doll in an antique shop many years ago. Ms. Field liked the doll so much, that she decided to write a book about her. We found a picture of the original doll that was the inspiration for our book, so we included it at the top of this first page. This doll is sitting in a little chair which is much like the one that Hitty sits in at the end of the book, in the window of the antique store.
  Hitty's first owner was a little girl named Phoebe Preble. Phoebe lived in Maine with her mother and father. One winter, a peddler came to their house to sell his wares. The snow and ice was so bad that year, that all of the roads became completely covered up with snow. No one could travel anywhere until the snow and ice melted, so the peddler had to stay at the Preble's house all winter. While he was there, he found a piece of Mountain Ash wood and carved a little doll for Phoebe.
  The peddler painted a real sweet face on the doll, and Phoebe sewed some clothes for it. Phoebe named the doll Hitty. Then, Phoebe crossstiched the word HITTY, in red, on the front of the doll's chemise, or smock. It is a good thing that the doll's name was sewn on her slip, because it helped all of her future owners know her real name. The words on our site are in red, in honor of Hitty.
  At the bottom of this page, you can see a picture of the Hitty doll that was found by Rachel Field, who is the author of our book. Can you see Hitty's pretty coral necklace that was given to her by the people on the island? Can you tell that this is a very old doll? How can you tell that she has been around for over 100 years?