44 pages • 1 hour read
Virginia SorensenMiracles on Maple Hill
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaChapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “There’s All Outdoors”
It is March, and 10-year-old Marly is traveling in the car with her mother, her father, and her 12-year-old brother, Joe. They are traveling from Pittsburgh to Grandma’s house in Maple Hill. Marly begs her mother, Lee, to repeat a phrase she calls the “scoot thing” (9), which comes from a story she tells the children about visiting her Grandma when she was a child. Her mother refuses to say the phrase as she is trying to not to disturb Marly’s father, Dale, who is tired and agitated. Marly’s Daddy is a World War II veteran and has residual trauma from being a prisoner of war. Since his miraculous return home, he dislikes loud noises and always seems tired. The family is moving to Maple Hill in hopes that living in the peace of the country will help him to heal.
Marly loves to hear Grandma’s words as told by her mother because the words convey their history. Her mom finally relents and says, “Now scoot, you two, for goodness sakes! Up here, there’s all outdoors!” (10) Marly remembers when her mother first told her the story and explained that Grandma tried to sweep her and her brother out the door with the broom, encouraging them to stay outside in nature instead of being bored inside. As they drive and Marly takes in the beautiful snowy scenery, she thinks about how hard it was for her family while Daddy was off to war, but it hasn’t been much better since he’s been home. Mother is constantly trying to keep everything quiet, and Daddy rarely leaves the house. On Christmas Day, he stayed in his room while they opened presents. Marly understands that her father is unwell, but she can’t understand why he is emotionless.
Mother warns Marly and Joe that the Maple Hill house may not look as picturesque as the ones they are passing. Grandma is gone and Uncle John lived there for a time, but Mother worries the home may have fallen into disrepair. Daddy once worried that he wasn’t up to the task of repairing the home, but Mother insisted that they could manage and said that Maple Hill holds a certain magic. Mother hopes the house will bring a miracle for their family. Now, as they approach the house, the family car struggles to make it up the hill and gets stuck in the snow. They try to push the car without success and decide to walk to find Mr. Chris, an old family friend, who can help. As she walks up the hill, Marly notices that the trees have spigots dripping liquid into buckets hanging from them, and she can smell a sweetness in the air. She sees a man chopping wood; he quickly drops his axe and introduces himself as Mr. Chris. Marly is instantly taken by his gentle presence. Mr. Chris gets on his tractor and heads over to pull the car from the snow, and Marly is thrilled to ride shotgun.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Meet Mr. Chris”
Mr. Chris and Marly meet up with the rest of the family on the road, and Marly can tell that Joe is jealous that she found Mr. Chris first. Mr. Chris uses the tractor to pull the car from the snow, and they all go to his home for a visit. Joe quickly jumps on the tractor with Marly. They meet Mrs. Chris, whom Mr. Chris calls “Chrissie,” and she lovingly welcomes Lee and the entire family as if she has known them forever. When Lee introduces Dale, Mrs. Chris looks at him as if she is seeing a ghost, and all the attention makes him uncomfortable. The Chrises are in the middle of sugaring season: the process of making maple syrup harvested from the trees in their sugarbush. Mr. Chris stays at their sugar shack most of the time to tend to the fire. Mrs. Chris insists that the family stay for a meal, but both children are anxious to get to Maple Hill and rudely say they are not hungry. Father also obviously doesn’t want to stay as he previously told Mother that he wants to be alone in the woods. Mrs. Chris insists and not wanting to be rude, Mother says they will stay. The meal is brief, and the children enjoy the food. Mrs. Chris offers to go to Maple Hill with them and help clean up since the place has been abandoned for so long, but Lee says that Dale plans to do most of the work himself.
They drive along toward Maple Hill as Marly’s anticipation grows. Though she has never seen the house, she can describe it in detail from her mother’s stories and memories. When they finally see the house, it doesn’t look as magical as Marly had thought but instead is small and run-down. Mother tries to point out the good parts of the house, but no one else says anything. Fritz, the caretaker, has started a fire, so at least they will be warm. Marly sits alone in the car for a few moments and hopes that the home will be a healing place for her family despite its shabby appearance. She speaks a quiet prayer: “Please, let there be miracles” (23).
Chapter 3 Summary: “Maple Hill”
The family investigates the house, and although it is musty and dirty, every room is filled with memories for Mother. Marly recognizes many of the items her mother has described, including the large tub they used for bathing. Joe tries the water pump, and Mother teaches him to prime the pump from the reservoir. The water is cloudy and brown at first but soon runs clear. There is a pantry full of staples, but everything is covered in mouse droppings. Daddy and Joe go exploring in the barn while Marly and Mother survey all the work to be done: for example, polishing the silver and airing out the linens. When Mother tells Marly, “This is the first place we women have to start to dig” (25), Marly feels special that her mother considers her a woman who is old enough to help. Mother points out a yellow cushion that she helped to sew and takes Marly to the room where she used to sleep. The room has a beautiful view, and Mother says that Marly and Joe are lucky to have one another to share in the exploration. Her brother John never wanted her to tag along, and she was afraid to go into the woods alone. Mother says she wishes she had time to draw the scenery, but she won’t have much free time now that she is a farmer’s wife. While exploring the drawers, Marly discovers a nest of newborn mice and begs her mother to let her keep them as pets. Mother refuses, saying that mice are a filthy nuisance, and that Joe must remove them. Marly secretly plans to convince Joe to keep them in a box.
Daddy and Joe find many useful tools in the barn, and Marly notices that her father is happy and excited. They even find a buggy that they can hitch to Mr. Chris’s horse and ride through the woods in the snow. Mother tells Joe about the mice, and Marly whispers to him her plan, but he agrees with Mother and burns the nest in the stove. Marly weeps and begs, but everyone, including Daddy, tells her that they can’t keep mice in the house. Marly distracts herself by helping Mother, but at dinner, they hear a mouse trap, and Marly is sad again. Her sadness is short-lived, however, because Fritz arrives and takes them to Mr. Chris’s sugar camp. Marly is enchanted to see the little shack glowing from Mr. Chris’s large fire; inside is a cauldron full of boiling syrup.
Chapter 4 Summary: “The First Miracle”
Marly and her family sit with the Chrises and Fritz around the fire, watching the sap bubble and boil while Mr. Chris explains how he turns the sap into syrup. Depending on the year, maple trees can produce many gallons of sap. He boils the sap to evaporate the water, which is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, given that each tree can only produce a half gallon of syrup. Marly watches her father as he listens intently to Mr. Chris. They have 50 maple trees on their property, and Marly knows that he is thinking about making syrup. Mr. Chris explains that his oldest tree produces the most sap, and Mrs. Chris jokes that the tree is like his pet. Mr. Chris says that even when the trees die, they can be used as firewood to boil the sap. Daddy helps Mr. Chris to stoke the fire, and Marly fears that the roiling pots might boil over, but Mr. Chris adds a bit of cream to stop the process. Marly declares it a miracle, and her enthusiasm enchants Mr. Chris. Joe pokes fun at his dreamy sister and tells Mr. Chris about her breakdown over the mice. Mrs. Chris shares that Mr. Chris loves the mice and allows them to live in the sugar shack. Marly, excited that she’s found a kindred spirit, asks if he would ever kill the mice. He responds that he loves the mice and enjoys their company. Mr. Chris defends Marly’s sensitivity, saying that caring for animals is an admirable trait.
When it’s time to test the syrup, Mr. Chris shows the group how he knows when it’s ready without using a thermometer. Years of experience have given him the knowledge to see when it looks right. Mrs. Chris shows them how to cool the sugar wax in the snow and make lollipops. Marly relishes the sweet, woodsy taste of the syrup, and they all agree that it is far better than the syrup they buy in the store. Mr. Chris declares that the appearance of the sap each spring is a miracle. Mrs. Chris asks Daddy if he will sing, and after some persuasion, he begins to sing an old song about a fox stealing a duck and its babies. Soon everyone joins in, and Marly is overjoyed to see her father so at ease. He promises Marly that he will sing to her at home, and to Marly in that moment, “everything [feels] good in a way [she] had almost forgotten” (38). As they prepare to leave, Mrs. Chris says she despises sugar season because Mr. Chris works too hard; she is worried about his health. Mr. Chris tells Marly that when she and Joe return for the summer, he will take her exploring in the woods and find all the animals. He says, “You know what I’ll promise you? Every weekend you come until school’s out, I promise you at least one new miracle” (38). When they arrive home, Daddy begins singing, and Marly knows that this is the miracle for the week.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The novel opens in medias res, in the middle of a family car trip from the city to the country. Marly and her family are traveling from Pittsburgh to a place where her mother spent her childhood summers. In literature, a long journey often symbolizes a significant life change, and true to form, Marly’s entire family is in a state of transition as they try to find a way to help Dale to recover from the trauma of war. Although the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder was new when the author first published the novel, people were already well aware of the lasting effects of traumatic incidents, especially on those who serve as soldiers in an active combat situation. Dale, Marly’s father, displays classic symptoms of a person dealing with residual trauma, as he can’t tolerate loud noises or public places and is easily irritated or angered. Through the author’s use of close third-person narration, Marly’s interior monologue reveals that her father’s condition deeply concerns her, and she hopes that the move to the country will be a miracle cure for his illness; her fervent prayer for miracles thus represents the first introduction of the theme of Finding Hope and Healing in the Natural World.
The opening scene also establishes the theme of The Power of Memory as Marly begs her mother to tell a story from her childhood with a catchphrase that she loves. Mother’s weariness of retelling the same story is familiar to any parent, but it also highlights Marly’s enduring fascination with the stories of her mother’s childhood experiences at Maple Hill with Grandma. Though Marly has never seen the house, she feels as if she already knows every room just from hearing her mother’s stories. Through Marly’s relationship with her mother’s memories, the author highlights the value of sharing memories and passing them on to the next generation. Marly loves Maple Hill even before she sees it because of her mother’s affection for the home and the love that she received there in the care of Grandma. Marly’s family can now make their memories built on the foundation of Lee’s history with the home.
The early chapters also establish the relationship dynamics between Marly and her older brother Joe, which will become an important motif in the narrative. While Marly is sensitive and thoughtful, Joe is outgoing, competitive, and thirsty for adventure. The siblings’ personalities often cause friction as Joe feels that he deserves to be the first at everything, making Marly feel ignored and left out of her brother’s world. Marly and Joe also diverge on their feelings about Maple Hill itself. While country cottage life enthralls Marly, Joe misses his friends and the city life he is accustomed to. However, the children are united in the cause of helping their father to heal, so the entire family works together to build a new life at Maple Hill. When the family car gets stuck, The Importance of Family and Community is brought abruptly to prominence in the narrative, for only with his willing help allows the family to extract their car from the snow. Additionally, the scene builds the first threads of the Chrises’ relationship with Marly as Mr. Chris invites her to ride the tractor that will save the family car. As they arrive at the run-down house, the family joins together to begin the cleaning process, which further emphasizes The Importance of Family and Community, for the goal of Marly’s family to start a new chapter in their life will only be possible if they learn to depend on one another as well as those in their community to survive and thrive in a new, unfamiliar environment.
Although Dale at first appears to crave solitude, the family is quickly drawn into the positive, nurturing ambience of the Chrises’ home through Mr. Chris’s magnetic personality and Chrissie’s gentle kindness and good cooking. The family arrives opportunely right in the middle of sugaring season, and just one night of watching Mr. Chris collect the sap and stir the cauldron of bubbling syrup bonds them to their neighbors. As Dale’s singing rings out through the sugar camp, it is clear that Maple Hill is working its magic to heal a part of him that he thought was gone. Marly and Mr. Chris are also kindred spirits right from the start, as they both share of love of nature and tenderness towards animals. Marly’s family has not moved to the country to find new friends, but their immediate connection to the Chrises demonstrates the beauty of finding friendship in unexpected places. Marly’s relationship with Mr. Chris helps her to become more comfortable in a new environment and validates her love of the natural world.
