The Stone Orchard

Sheree Haughian is an elementary-school teacher-librarian with the
Dufferin County Board of Education.

Fourteen-year-old Maud Fraser, who lives near Ridgeway in
pre-Confederation western Canada, has had a depressing recent past and
now faces a dubious future. She feels responsible for her young
brother’s premature placement in “the stone orchard” (a pioneer
euphemism for the graveyard). As the family falls on lean times, they
arrange for Maud to become a clerk for Skinflint Skinner, the miserly
proprietor of the local general store. Maud’s unease with her new
situation is heightened by the prophecies of a strange old woman who
reads cards in the manner of a gypsy queen. When Fenian troops make good
on their threat to cross the Niagara River to invade Canada, crisis
turns into opportunity for Maud. Compelled to care for the wounded of
both armies, Maud, aided by two loyal friends, fulfils her special
destiny.

The novel’s ending, in the 19th-century romantic tradition, is
perhaps too good to be true. As a heroine, Maud is blessed with
revelations and rewards likely unavailable to her nonfictional
counterparts. Still, The Stone Orchard is a lively true-to-period
adventure—herstorical fiction well worth purchasing. Recommended.