Synopsis
Late in the evening of Sunday, January 1, 1775, Faith Kaylore of Endaportal sits before the fireplace in her room and on the first page of her latest diary she writes: "HUZA! HUZZA! Hugh is coming home! Uncle Elias has released him from his apprenticeship and Endaportal will have its own printer and newspaper soon!" In the margin, she adds a postscript to ask her brother about Billy William, the British soldier working with him in their uncle's print shop in Boston, who has decorated her new diary with a strong and bold letter drawn in the corner of each page. The post rider's praise and obvious liking of this King's Grenadier "with merry eyes and a smile of good teeth" makes Faith curious about the man further described to her as: "Sort of handsome with a pleasant style about him and a real help in the print shop." Within a few weeks, Billy William suddenly and dramatically enters her life when she investigates a wisp of smoke coming from a house in Old Drowned Town which is not ready yet for either printing press or human habitat. Hugh's request for a road chopped through two-miles of heavy forest between Endaportal and Enda, a town abandoned years earlier after a flood, is accomplished by recruiting Captain Edward Homer and his crew from the SEA JULE, all wintering in Lower Town while their ship is in dry-dock until spring at Middletown. Each day, life without dependence upon England's imports grows nearer because of these beached sailors. The road they build brings with it new industries, the newspaper, a dress shop, and a very necessary convenience - The Transportation Line - which not only ties the two towns together but actually causes them to merge into one. Faith's Diary also chatters about her twin sisters - Emily, soon to marry Ben Dwyer, a Captain in Endaportal's newly formed MinuteMen - and Anne, waiting for Rafe Marbury to return from England for a planned double-wedding. Rafe is also to be the new customs inspector at Endaportal and Anne is devastated by the effigies of him that begin hanging along "Hugh's Road" shortly before his arrival. When the abominations are toasted uproariously by the road crew who usually end their working day with a meal at the Kaylore Inn, neither Faith nor Emily can console her. Captain Homer thoughtfully sends his ship's cook, Freeman, to help Faith with the huge daily meals and his cooking expertise soon enables the black man to take over the kitchen completely, releasing Faith who revels in her new freedom. She begins to plan how she can write and work with her brother and his mysterious friend on the Endaportal Gazette with its 1775 masthead declaring boldly: "United now, alive and free, Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand, And, thus supported, ever bless our land, till Time becomes Eternity." Those loyal to King George 111 are enraged. Those wanting to be free of England´s rule are elated. In this warm and real Diary of Faith Kaylor with its peek into her dreams and loungings, she also gives meaning to the days and events in the lives of family and friends in Endaportal, the people "on the home front" as the British Colonies begin the heartbreak which will lead to Liberty and Freedom and a new nation - the United States of America
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