The Hollow Tree

The book is the third in a trilogy, the first two being "The Root Cellar" and "Shadow on Hawthorne Bay". Having progressed backward from the American Civil War in "The Root Cellar", another few decades in "Shadow on Hawthorne Bay", "The Hollow Tree" takes place during the starting of the American Revolution in 1777.

The protagonist of the story is plump little Phoebe Olcott, a timid but helpful 15-year-old girl. After her father, a schoolteacher, is killed in action while fighting as a patriot (commonly known as rebels) in the quick revolution, she ends up living with her aunt's family, who happen to be Loyalist.

Phoebe continues to hide in the shadows of her cousins Gideon and Anne Robinson until Gideon becomes a British soldier. When he is suddenly found hung, Phoebe discovers that Gideon was actually a spy and finds a list of names that was entrusted to Gideon and must be delivered to Fort Ticonderoga.

She arrives at Fort Ticonderoga too late; the post has been abandoned. Instead, she finds a bear and a cat, and meets Jem Morrissay, whose family happens to be one of the names on the list entrusted to Gideon. Phoebe and Jem form an uneasy relationship and she is reunited with her family and several other Loyalist families fleeing to Upper Canada to avoid persecution from American Patriots.

When Phoebe's own convictions, background, and morals clash the more radical of the Loyalists, she soon finds herself isolated from the rest of the group. Forced to continue alone, it begins Phoebe's dangerous journey to Canada in order to escape the revolution and fulfill Gideon's final mission.