There is something charming in the early chapters of this novel, with the angelic Mara and the wild-spirited orphan Moses growing up together amongst the kindly though morally stern New England characters amidst the delightfully handsome Maine seacoast villages, that keeps the reader reading eagerly through the first part of the book - though Ms. Stowe can't maintain that level to the end. Mara grows up with a deep love for Moses, though, of course, he's blind to it. But after a long voyage to China he realizes it, but now she seems interested in another. Jealous, he begins to court the flirtatious Sally, though she steers him back to Mara where his true love lies. Stowe writes with a great deal of compassion, and her characters are strongly developed.