Chapter 2 is entitled "Kindly Friends." This is a play on words referring to the Stevens family, who are Quakers, members of a religious group known as "Friends." In this chapter the Stevenses act as true friends to their neighbors, Charlie and Lyddie. When Mr. Stevens hears the children must leave their farm to go to work to pay the family debts, he is sympathetic. He is also impressed that the two children have been...
Chapter 2 is entitled "Kindly Friends." This is a play on words referring to the Stevens family, who are Quakers, members of a religious group known as "Friends." In this chapter the Stevenses act as true friends to their neighbors, Charlie and Lyddie. When Mr. Stevens hears the children must leave their farm to go to work to pay the family debts, he is sympathetic. He is also impressed that the two children have been maintaining the farm by themselves over the winter. It appears that Mr. Stevens genuinely cares for the children and that he is a kind man. He also knows that the calf is well-bred since the children used his own bull to breed their cow with. In addition, the Stevenses are fairly wealthy—or at least comfortable—and although $25 seems a large sum to Lyddie, for them it is not exorbitant. The Stevenses are very generous people as well as conscientious abolitionists, as shown in their efforts to assist fugitive slaves to freedom.
Lyddie is concerned about saving her family's farm first and foremost because their father left them years ago, and she is hoping he will return. She wants to have a place where he can not only find his family but also resume their relationship. Besides that, she has hopes of all her family being together again, and the farm represents the best opportunity for that in her view.
When the children's mother hires them out, Lyddie goes to Cutler's Tavern to assist Mistress Cutler, and Charlie goes to Baker's Mill to work for the Phinneys.
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