Lydia’s champion as opposed to the villainous Uncle Lester is Ed Mallory, a rural mail carrier. This half-blind mailman loves
Lydia as does his wife and they make every attempt to adopt the young boy, James, the name they chose to call him.
Challenged by the authorities at every turn in the adoption process, the Mallorys are forced to helplessly stand by for several
years and watch James Lydia endure the heavy hand of Lester Beaman. But the Mallorys refused to watch the child starve,
and almost daily while on his mail route Ed Mallory brought food for the boy.
All was not bleak for Lydia, however, for he learned to cope in various ways. As he grew older his imagination visualized a
magic carpet as a means of escape. Also, a stray dog that he named Lady became his companion as well as champion.
Occasionally the Mallorys were allowed to borrow Lydia from Lester Beaman, that is, he visited them if Ed Mallory paid
Lester money for him. Lester allowed the renting of the child when he was in desperate need of whiskey and had no
wherewithal to purchase the mind-numbing moonshine.
The poorness of the little community where Lydia lives is in plain view, just as Lester Beaman’s frustration brought on by his
ignorance, coupled with his poverty and lazy nature is obvious. In the narrative Lester reminds the reader that he once was an
abused child. The overriding motive that Lester has for holding on to a child he despises is due to the fact that James Lydia
Pinkham is the rightful owner of the house in which he and his wife and two sons live, even though Lester has led the
townspeople to believe otherwise. Also Lester steals the monthly government checks intended for the deceased Merriam and
James Lydia.
Despite the hardship of his existence the years pass for James Lydia Pinkham, and in spite of his deprivation he manages to get
along, living for the few occasions when he is allowed to visit the Mallorys. An accident during the Christmas holidays when
James is at the Mallorys, however, finally brings his struggle to survive to a head. It is a horrendous event although it does have
the effect of exposing Lester Beaman’s true colors once and for all.
The book ends with right finally overcoming wrong but the reader is likely to wonder why it took so long for good to prevail.
The people in Lydia’s community are not bad people but often misguided, like the social worker who looked in on Lydia but
was too overworked to do the case justice, not to mention misled as to James Lydia’s true condition. The boy’s young mother,
Merriam, who lost both her parents the year before he was born, dies in an asylum while he is still a baby. Part of her madness
is the result of a sheltered upbringing and immaturity, causing her to be too weak to deal with the likes of Lester Beaman. Well-
meaning people believing that a child should live with blood kin instead of being adopted by an older childless couple, whom
they believed to be obsessed over not having a child of their own, are not blameless either in this tale of woe. But the story
does have an upbeat ending and the reader knows that although James Lydia Pinkham literally has been put through the fire, he
does come out on the other side into the loving arms of Lily and Ed Mallory.
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