The Courage of Sarah Noble

Summary

The Courage of Sarah Noble tells, in eleven short chapters, how eight-year-old Sarah Noble went with her father, John Noble, into the Connecticut wilderness in 1707 to build a house for their family. The rest of the Nobles stay behind in Massachusetts. When Sarah leaves, her mother fastens a warm cloak around her and tells her to keep up her courage, words Sarah repeats to herself all through the book. In the first chapter she lies awake in the forest beside her father and his musket, listening to an owl, a fox and a wolf. They spend a night at a small settlement with Mistress Robinson and her children, who frighten Sarah with stories that Indians will carry her off, while the girl Abigail envies her cloak. Riding on with their horse, Thomas, Sarah decks herself and the horse with flowers, and at last they come down a long hill to their own land, where they camp in a shelter built against a cave while the log house goes up. Left alone there by day, Sarah reads her Bible aloud, the story of the boy Samuel, and looks up to find Indian children all around her. Soon she is teaching them English words and they are showing her where the berries grow; she names two of them Small John and Mary. Their father, whom John Noble calls Tall John, helps raise the house. When it is finished, Sarah's father goes back for the family and leaves her with Tall John's household. She learns to weave a basket, wears deerskin and moccasins, says her prayers each night, and lies awake through one night of fear over rumors of raiders from the north. At last Tall John carries her across the river to the log house, where her mother waits with the baby, Mabel, who has learned to walk. Published by Scribner's in 1954 with drawings by Leonard Weisgard, the book was named a Newbery Honor Book.

Plot or Argument

• Chapters 1-2: Night in the Forest; Night in the Settlement

  Sarah and her father camp in the woods on the way from Massachusetts, and Sarah names each night sound to keep her fear down. At Mistress Robinson's crowded cabin the children tease her with tales about Indians, and Sarah keeps her cloak close.

• Chapters 3-4: Down the Long Hill; Night in the Cave

  Sarah crowns herself and the horse Thomas with flowers as they reach their land. They make camp against a cave, cook bean porridge, and Sarah reasons her way through the noises of the dark until her father says she keeps him brave.

• Chapters 5-6: Indians; Friends

  Alone at the camp while her father cuts logs, Sarah reads the story of Samuel and finds Indian children watching her. Fear gives way to friendship: she teaches them English words, they lead her to berries, and the family trades for corn. Tall John comes to help raise the house.

• Chapters 7-8: Keep Up Your Courage; In the Indian House

  The house is done and John Noble must fetch the family, so Sarah stays with Tall John's family. Her father tells her that being afraid and brave together is the best courage. Her first night away she is homesick, and she prays for her own family and for the household that has taken her in.

• Chapter 9: Night of Fear

  Through the autumn Sarah helps dry corn, learns to weave a basket and wears deerskin clothes. One night a low whistle and rumors of hostile Indians from the north keep her awake; in the morning Tall John tells her the danger is past.

• Chapters 10-11: Sarah Goes Home; Night in the Log House

  Tall John carries Sarah across the river to the finished log house, where her mother and the baby Mabel wait. By the fire that night Sarah and her brother John speak up for Tall John's family, and Sarah, no longer much of a child, thinks about the woman she will become.

Characters

• Sarah Noble, protagonist

  Eight-year-old girl who goes with her father into the wilderness to cook and keep house for him.

• John Noble, Sarah's father

  Settler who has bought land in Connecticut and builds a log house there before bringing his family.

• Tall John, Indian neighbor

  Name John Noble gives the Indian man who helps raise the house and shelters Sarah in his family.

• Tall John's wife, Sarah's foster mother

  Teaches Sarah to weave a basket and makes her deerskin clothes and moccasins.

• Small John and Mary, Indian children

  Names Sarah gives to two of Tall John's children, her first playmates and pupils.

• Mistress Robinson, settler's wife

  Gives Sarah and her father a place by her fire for a night on the journey.

• Abigail Robinson, settler's daughter

  Robinson girl who takes Sarah's cloak and wishes for one of her own.

• Sarah's mother, Mistress Noble

  Sends Sarah off with the cloak and the charge to keep up her courage.

• Mabel, baby sister

  The youngest Noble, who has learned to walk by the time Sarah sees her again.

• Thomas, the horse

  The family horse that carries Sarah and the supplies and hauls logs for the house.

Lessons

• Brave while afraid

  Sarah is frightened by wolves, by the Robinson children's tales and by being left behind, and she never stops being afraid. What she does is keep going: naming the sounds in the dark, staying at her post, and saying her mother's words to herself. The book teaches that courage is a choice made in the middle of fear.

  • What sounds frightened Sarah on the first night, and what did she do about them?
  • When her father left her with Tall John's family, was Sarah scared? What made her brave anyway?
  • When have you been afraid and done the right thing anyway?

• Neighbors who did not speak the same language

  Sarah expects enemies and finds friends. The Indian children learn English words from her and lead her to berries; Tall John helps build the house and calls her his daughter. Kindness crosses the barrier of language long before words do.

  • How did Sarah and the Indian children play together when they could not understand each other?
  • Why did the Robinson children's stories turn out to be wrong about Tall John's family?

• A small girl doing a woman's work

  Sarah goes because she is needed: someone must cook for her father while he builds. She makes corn cakes, keeps the camp and looks after him, and her father says she keeps him from being afraid. Responsibility given to a child, and taken seriously, helps her grow.

  • What jobs did Sarah do to help her father?
  • How did Sarah's father say she helped him in the cave at night?

• Prayer far from home

  Sarah reads her Bible in the empty camp and prays each night, even in Tall John's house, for her family and for the people caring for her. Her faith goes with her into the woods like her cloak.

  • What Bible story was Sarah reading when the Indian children first came?
  • Who did Sarah pray for on her first night in Tall John's house?

Context

The book rests on a real episode in Connecticut's early history. Land along the Housatonic River at Weantinock was bought from its Native owners by men from Milford in the early 1700s and became the town of New Milford. Local histories record John Noble of Westfield, Massachusetts, as its first English settler, coming in 1707 with his eight-year-old daughter Sarah. The Native people of the valley, among them the community later gathered at Schaghticoke, lived alongside the newcomers, and their sachem Waramaug is remembered in the area's place names.

Composition

Dalgliesh opens the book with a note saying the story is true and pointing to records of the events. She lived for many years in Connecticut and wrote it as a short chapter book for young readers, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1954 with drawings by Leonard Weisgard.

Reception

It was named a Newbery Honor Book, Dalgliesh's third such honor, and the New York Times Book Review praised its simplicity and dignity. It has stayed in print for seventy years, and a school in New Milford bears Sarah Noble's name.

Comparisons

• the-bears-on-hemlock-mountain

  Dalgliesh's other Newbery Honor story for young readers also sends a child alone through the woods with a repeated saying, Jonathan's rhyme about the bears answering Sarah's mother's charge to keep up her courage.

• the-sign-of-the-beaver

  Both books leave a child to keep a new cabin while the father fetches the family, and both turn on friendship with Native neighbors who teach the child how to live in the woods.

• little-house-in-the-big-woods

  Laura's log house in Wisconsin and Sarah's in Connecticut, a century and a half apart, show the same frontier household work of fire, food and shelter through a small girl's eyes.

• keep-the-lights-burning-abbie

  Abbie Burgess, like Sarah, is a real girl left in charge while her father is away, and both stories measure courage in a child's willingness to stay at her task through a frightening night.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Sarah's cloak, which her mother fastened on her at home. Notice when she holds it tight, when she lets Abigail take it, and when she stops needing it.
• Every time Sarah says her mother's words to herself. Watch when she says them and what she does next.
• Many chapter titles begin with Night. Notice how each night is a little less frightening than the one before.
• The Bible Sarah carries. See what she is reading when the Indian children first appear in Chapter 5.

Key terms and names

Cloak

A long, warm cape with no sleeves. Sarah's mother put hers on Sarah when she left home, and it makes Sarah feel safe.

Settlement

A small group of houses in the wilderness. Sarah and her father spend a night in one with the Robinson family.

Musket

An old kind of gun. Sarah's father keeps his beside him at night in the forest.

Tall John

The name Sarah's father gives the Indian man who helps him build the house, because he cannot say the man's own name.

Moccasins

Soft deerskin shoes. Tall John's wife makes a pair for Sarah while she lives with them.

Log house

A house made of whole tree trunks laid on top of each other. Sarah's father and Tall John build one for the Noble family.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Why did Sarah go into the woods with her father instead of staying home with her mother?
2. Comprehension What did the Robinson children say to scare Sarah about the Indians?
3. Comprehension What was Sarah doing when the Indian children first came to the camp?
4. Interpretation Sarah's father said she helped him not to be afraid in the cave. How could a little girl make a grown man feel braver?
5. Interpretation Sarah was afraid of Indians before she met any. Why did she change her mind after she met Small John and Mary?
6. Interpretation Tall John told Sarah to go to her mother and called her his daughter. What does that tell us about how his family felt about her?
7. Big Question Sarah's father said the best courage is being afraid and brave at the same time. Do you think that is true? Why?

Faith Connections

• Joshua 1:9 (Scripture)

  God tells Joshua to be strong and of a good courage, and not to be afraid, because the Lord goes with him wherever he goes. Sarah's mother gives her the same charge, and Sarah carries her Bible into the woods.

• 1 Samuel 3 (Scripture)

  The boy Samuel hears God calling in the night and answers, Speak, for thy servant heareth. Sarah is reading about Samuel, another child far from home, when the Indian children step out of the forest.

• Psalm 56:3 (Scripture)

  What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Sarah does not stop being afraid at night in Tall John's house; she prays and goes on.

• Hebrews 13:2 (Scripture)

  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. Tall John's family takes a stranger's child into their home for weeks and cares for her as their own.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Sarah is afraid of the dark woods, of the stories she has heard, and of being left alone. She cannot make the fear go away, but she can choose what to do: keep her post, care for her father, make friends, and pray. Each time she does, the next fear is a little smaller. So courage is not the absence of fear but doing what is right while afraid, as her father tells her.

Rhetorical device: refrain. Sarah's mother's words, Keep up your courage, Sarah Noble, return again and again from Chapter 1 onward and give Chapter 7 its title, so the reader hears them each time Sarah needs them.

Debate: Resolved: Sarah's father was right to leave her with Tall John's family while he fetched the others.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Write about one night in the book when Sarah was afraid. Tell what scared her, what she did, and how she felt in the morning.

Comparison with The Bears on Hemlock Mountain: Sarah has her mother's words and Jonathan has his rhyme about the bears. Compare how the two children use words to stay brave, and say which child you think was braver.

Medical Lens

No medical content of note. The book concerns a child's fear and how she manages it, and its account of naming night sounds to calm herself is a homely picture of a child's coping rather than a medical episode.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Read Chapter 4 aloud with the lights low. Each time Sarah hears a sound, stop and let the children guess what animal it is before she does.

• Fiction

  Tell the story of Sarah's first day in the woods from the point of view of Small John or Mary, who see a strange girl reading aloud from a book.

• Dialogue

  Act out Sarah teaching the Indian children three English words, and the children teaching her the way to the berry bushes, using mostly gestures.

• Classroom

  Make a map of Sarah's journey from Massachusetts to the log house, with a picture for each night's chapter: the forest, the settlement, the cave, the Indian house and the log house.

Further Reading

• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, Alice Dalgliesh

• The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare

  A boy keeps a Maine cabin alone and is befriended by Native neighbors.

• Two Centuries of New Milford, Connecticut, Various (New Milford bicentennial committee)

  The 1907 town history recording John Noble's settlement in 1707.