The first chapter of the novel Lyddie begins with a bear in the Worthen cabin. The bear pushes its head through the door that Charlie left ajar. Lyddie tells the rest of the family to move quickly and smoothly up into the loft. She remains below on the main floor, keeping her eyes fiercely locked with the eyes of the bear as it pokes its head through the doorway. Lyddie backs up toward the ladder and climbs it herself.
Only then does the bear come fully into the cabin. It pokes around curiously and ends up sticking its nose into a kettle of porridge bubbling over the fire. The kettle gets stuck on the bear's head, and it staggers around the cabin and then out the door. Lyddie and her siblings burst out laughing, but Mrs. Worthen takes the event as a sign that the end of the world is upon them. She decides it is time to go live with her sister to await the end. Lyddie tries to dissuade her mother, but she says that if they don't leave the farm now, they will find themselves at the poor farm.
The children's father has been away for two years, and they have no idea whether he will return. Lyddie tells her mother that she and Charlie will stay at the farm waiting for their father's return. Charlie takes his mother and the two little girls to Uncle Judah's farm and returns after two weeks. Lyddie and Charlie manage to survive through the winter in the cabin by eating rabbits and soup made from peeled bark. When the cow births its calf, they enjoy cream and milk again. One day in the spring the shopkeeper's wife from the village general store brings the children a letter from their mother. She has hired them out to the mill and the tavern to pay the family debts, and she has sold the cow and horse and let out the land to Mr. Wescott. Lyddie cries upon reading the letter. Charlie tries to cheer her up by making a joke about their mother's wish for the end of the world and her poor spelling. Charlie and Lyddie laugh together, but Lyddie is still heartbroken at having to leave Charlie and their farm.
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