Katy Hunter's Homes

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. After her father is lost at sea and her mother dies from the strain of poverty, little Katy Hunter is left alone in a grim city tenement, vulnerable to every kind of cruelty. Small, fair, and tender-hearted, she is passed from one harsh household to another—first the drunken Maloneys, then the filthy cellar home of Peter Hanks and Nancy—where adults see only a useful beggar's face and try to train her into lying for money. Katy's refusal to deceive, even under blows and hunger, reveals the strength of the moral teaching she learned from her mother and the deep innocence that survives in her. Yet the life forced on her is brutal: ragged clothes, cold streets, beatings, and endless begging slowly wear down her spirit and make prayer feel distant. In this darkness, brief mercies stand out—a kitten, a battered doll, the friendship of rough Sally Dike, and especially the kindness of Daisy Grant, a bright, well-dressed child whose faith and sympathy awaken Katy's longing for beauty, dignity, and rescue. But every hope is shadowed by fresh hardship, as she moves on to the bleak Scram household, where neglect and cruelty continue the novel's powerful portrait of poverty, child suffering, and fragile grace.