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Daddy-Long-Legs

by Jean Webster

On the orphanage’s worst day, Jerusha gains a mysterious benefactor.

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Original language: EnglishLevel: Intermediate3,416 characters · ≈ 5 minSource: Project Gutenberg

Opening lines

The first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful Day--a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste. Every floor must be spotless, every chair dustless, and every bed without a wrinkle. Ninety-seven squirming little orphans must be scrubbed and combed and buttoned into freshly starched ginghams; and all ninety-seven reminded of their manners, and told to say, 'Yes, sir,' 'No, sir,' whenever a Trustee spoke.

It was a distressing time; and poor Jerusha Abbott, being the oldest orphan, had to bear the brunt of it. But this particular first Wednesday, like its predecessors, finally dragged itself to a close. Jerusha escaped from the pantry where she had…

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About the book

Daddy-Long-Legs is a 1912 epistolary novel by American writer Jean Webster, following Jerusha "Judy" Abbott as she leaves an orphanage and is sent to college by a benefactor she has never seen. It was first serialized in the Ladies' Home Journal from April to September 1912 and published in book form by The Century Company on September 28, 1912. Its letter-form telling of Judy's story makes it a rewarding read.

About the author

Jean Webster (July 24, 1876 – June 11, 1916), the pen name of Alice Jane Chandler Webster, was an American author whose books include Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy. Her best-known works feature lively young female protagonists coming of age intellectually, morally, and socially, told with humor, snappy dialogue, and gently biting social commentary.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: Daddy-Long-Legs (novel) (CC BY-SA)

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