A Home in Hastie Hollow

June M. Blurton is a retired speech pathologist.

The author’s ancestors settled in Hastie Hollow near Maple Creek,
Saskatchewan, at the turn of the century. The tales he heard as a child
form the basis of this simple story.

Mike, an immigrant from the Ukraine, is a skilled carpenter and the
owner of a farm in Hastie Hollow. All that he is lacking is a wife, but
Mike is painfully shy around women. He sends a ship and train ticket to
a girl in England whom he has never met. Mita is a 16-year-old orphan
who has led a very restricted life on a small pig farm. Although she
arrives in Saskatchewan, a series of misunderstandings prevent her and
Mike from meeting until the last page of the book.

Mita and the reader are introduced to the details of running a farm in
the early 1900s, and to the people living in the nearby village. The
tools are simple and the work hard, but the neighbors are helpful and
friendly. These descriptions have a ring of truth. Less plausible is
Mita’s success in mastering a wealth of activities, including milking,
ploughing, driving a horse and buggy, cooking, baking, sewing, and
playing the piano, in less than a year.

This book would delight a young person with an interest in how this
country was built.