Polly Ann (Hannaberry) Dolan Timeline and Summary

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• Polly Ann is born the oldest of five daughters to Chick Hannaberry.
• She marries Nob Dolan, who owns a small farm.
• Nob Dolan leaves all the work of the farm to Polly Ann, spends his time drinking, and leaves five years after their marriage, never to be heard from again. What a loser.
• Polly Ann is left to raise their three children, a boy named Tom and twin girls named Cissie-Mae and Ellie.
• She tells Tom stories about the successful uncle he is named after (the only successful member of the family) and about her life as a little girl roaming about the countryside collecting berries to sell to rich folks at the order of her father.
• She teaches Tom how to do chores around their farm, and she works hard herself both on their property as well as at cleaning, washing, churning butter, and gathering eggs and berries to sell to provide for her children.
• When Tom is thirteen, he tells Polly Ann he wants to quit school and find a job. She tells him she can provide well enough for them for now if he wants to continue on in school. But he's made up his mind.
• She drives him up to town on one of the days she goes there to do housework so he can look for a job.
• Tom gets a job at the mill, partly because the owner remembers Chick and Polly Ann, and Polly Ann encourages him.
• Polly Ann fusses over Tom when he comes in after walking home from work in a snowstorm.
• Polly Ann helps Tom smuggle his Christmas presents for the girls into the house, cuts a Christmas tree, and wraps Tom's gift to Birdy. On Christmas Day, she loves her present from Tom, a shirtwaist, and looks as young and pretty as ever trying it on.
• Polly Ann stays pretty much behind the scenes over the next year. The next Christmas, she receives a teakettle from Tom and she uses it to make tea for Mr. Hook, who has stopped by with a gift for Tom.
• Polly Ann consoles Tom when the Breen property is sold to someone else.
• The next time Christmas rolls around, Mr. Hook arrives with candy for Polly Ann and the girls, and she has a very merry time talking and laughing with Mr. Hook and Birdy.
• Polly Ann encourages Tom to make Mr. Armond an offer on the barn after they find out he is the one who has purchased the Breen property. She's over the moon when he comes back having made the purchase successfully.
• Polly Ann rides up to the Breen property with Mr. Hook one Sunday for a picnic lunch with Tom and Birdy when they were nearly finished with taking the barn down. She tells stories of having picnics when she was a little girl, of her mother's and sister's deaths, and of getting lost in the swamp just beyond the Breen property while looking for berries. She also tells a story about getting whipped by Mrs. Breen for looking into the barn window one night while Mr. Breen was in there. Hm.
• As Polly Ann and Mr. Hook drive away, Birdy remarks that the two seem to be getting along very well. Do we hear wedding bells?
• That night, Polly Ann and Tom share their suspicions about Mr. Breen and the barn. Tom thinks the money is hidden under the floor, and wants Polly Ann to go with him to look for it because she'll know the backways to get there so that no one sees them. Not now, though: in November.
• Polly Ann gets super stressed planning the food for the barn-raising. She's not thrilled that dozens of people will show up looking for free food and she worries about how they will pay for it all. It works out, though.
• Polly Ann and Tom make their journey to the Breen place the night after the barn-raising. Tom is glad to have her with him both for her knowledge and her reassurance.
• She helps Tom carry the heavy chests to the wagon, and then she leads the horse and wagon to the edge of the Armond property where Tom will meet her after replacing the floorboards. Can't have people guessing that they've been there and found the chests.
• Tom meets Polly Ann and they drive the chests to Billy-Bob Baxter's to keep them safe from the Flanchers. They open the chests and count the money.
• With the barn finally up, Polly Ann praises Tom for his work.
• That year at Christmas, she insists that he carve the turkey as the head of the family.
• Polly Ann rides with Tom to the Armonds' when he goes to pay the remaining $25 he owes for the barn. She wears her best dress, a coat and hat, and sits in their new wagon with their fine team of horses. It's a far cry from the days she had to go there peddling berries.
• Mr. Armond compliments her on her fine son and invites her in for tea with his wife. Polly Ann declines. She's gotten all the vindication she needs.