The Queen’s Body-Guard by Margaret Vandegrift
The Queen’s Bodyguard by Margaret Vandegrift
Published in 1883 by Henry T. Coates & Co.
Illustrated by M. W. Wallace
Seven children and their mother strike out to make their living off the land of a broken-down farm in Delaware. Amid thieving neighbors, poverty, and challenges of transportation, they charge ahead with cheery disposition in their new surroundings to refurbish the old home-site and “get-ahead.”
“A portrait of American family life”– a tale of entrepreneurship, sibling loyalty, and the far-reaching realm of motherhood. It is clearly 1800’s literature, written for an audience of girls.
In many ways it is in much of a similar vein as it’s contemporaries, like the Elsie Dinsmore books. Or many of the Lamplighter tales. Unlike Elsie Dinsmore, however, these children are hearty, have many interests, and actually do things. They think as entrepreneurs. They also have a healthy joviality (they are sober not somber Christians!) and sense of humor—which flavors this book quite differently from Elsie Dinsmore, and is an immensely important distinction between this and most children’s lit of the day.
I enjoyed reading it, and would have even more so had I discovered it when I was young. However, the ending two chapters felt terribly rushed–much like a race to marry off all the children and tie up as many “happily-ever-after” endings as possible. I didn’t like that at all. Aside from that, it read along the lines of a mild version of Swiss Family Robinson, a more “civilization-farm” version of My Side of The Mountain, or the first Boxcar Children book: a family setting out to make a home and get along with their own two hands and ingenuity. A la 1880’s style.
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