A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton - Michael R. Phillips [0]
OWN COTTON
Books by Michael Phillips
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Is Jesus Coming Back As Soon As We Think?
Destiny Junction • Kings Crossroads
Make Me Like Jesus • God, A Good Father
Jesus, An Obedient Son
Best Friends for Life (with Judy Phillips)
George MacDonald: Scotland’s Beloved Storyteller
Rift in Time • Hidden in Time
Your Life in Christ (George MacDonald)
The Truth in Jesus (George MacDonald)
AMERICAN DREAMS
Dream of Freedom • Dream of Life • Dream of Love
THE SECRET OF THE ROSE
The Eleventh Hour • A Rose Remembered
Escape to Freedom • Dawn of Liberty
SHENANDOAH SISTERS
Angels Watching Over Me
A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton
The Color of Your Skin Ain’t the Color of Your Heart
Together Is All We Need
CAROLINA COUSINS
A Perilous Proposal • The Soldier ’s Lady
Never Too Late • Miss Katie’s Rosewood
A Day to Pick Your Own Cotton
Copyright © 2003
Michael Phillips
Cover photo of girls by David Bailey
Cover design by The DesignWorks Group
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Uncle Remus stories are the creation of Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908).
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 978-0-7642-2701-1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Phillips, Michael R., 1946–
A day to pick your own cotton / by Michael Phillips.
p. cm. — (Shenandoah sisters)
ISBN 0-7642-2706-8 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7642-2701-7 (pbk.)
1. North Carolina—Fiction. 2. Female friendship—Fiction. 3. Plantation life— Fiction. 4. Race relations—Fiction. 5. Teenage girls—Fiction. 6. Reconstruction— Fiction. 7. Orphans—Fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Phillips, Michael R., 1946- , Shenandoah sisters.
PS3566.H492D396 2003
813'.52—dc21 2003001434
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MICHAEL PHILLIPS is one of the premier fiction authors publishing in the CBA marketplace. He has authored more than fifty books, with total sales exceeding six million copies. He is also well known as the editor of the popular George MacDonald Classics series. Michael and his wife, Judy, have three grown sons and make their home in Eureka, California.
Contents
1. CIVIL WAR SISTERS
2. THE FIRST TEST
3. MAKING PLANS
4. ROSEWOOD
5. EMMA’S STORY
6. MAKING ROSEWOOD LOOK RIGHT
7. THE OLD PAGES
8. PUTTING OUR PLAN TO WORK
9. A TALK ABOUT GOD
10. BACK HOME
11. A REMEMBRANCE OF FREEDOM
12. SIGN IN A WINDOW
13. DECISION
14. SURPRISE AT ROSEWOOD
15. ALONE AT ROSEWOOD
16. ALETA
17. HARSH WORDS
18. TREASURE HUNT
19. AWKWARD DAYS
20. CLEARING OFF A BILL
21. THE TEARDROP
22. RESPECT
23. BEDTIME STORIES
24. WASHDAY
25. NEW WINDOWS
26. A REQUEST
27. QUESTIONS IN TOWN
28. MAKING CHEESE
29. INTERRUPTION
30. THE REST OF THE WORLD
31. ALONE WITH MY THOUGHTS
32. A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY
33. SUSPICIOUS CALLER
34. ON THE HEELS OF DANGER
35. CAPTURED
36. INTERROGATION
37. KATIE AND ALETA
38. NIGHTMARE UPON NIGHTMARE
39. RESOLVE
40. RESCUE PARTY
41. THE BIG OAK
42. FOUR SISTERS AND A FRIEND
43. A NEW CRISIS
44. I HAVE AN IDEA
45. MORNING IN THE FIELD
46. KING COTTON
47. DIRE NOTICE
48. PAYOFF
49. HOME AGAIN
Epilogue
CIVIL WAR SISTERS
1
IRECKON IT’D BE ALMIGHTY PRESUMING OF ME TO guess what was going on inside the brain of the lady who ran the general store and post office in the town of Greens Crossing in Shenandoah County, North Carolina. But I do know what was going on inside mine. If we can’t fool Mrs. Hammond, we’ll go hungry. Or worse—they’ll come and take us away.
Elfrida Hammond wasn’t the kind of lady a body could draw a good bead on just from looking at her. Except for one thing, that is.