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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aPZ
100 1 _aLeslie, Madeline,
_d1815-1893
245 1 0 _aStopping the leak
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2025
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
490 1 _aBrookside series
500 _aRelease date is 2025-10-19
520 _a"Stopping the leak" by Madeline Leslie is a moral domestic novel written in the mid-19th century. It traces how waste, dishonesty, and intemperance drain both fortune and character, and how shrewd, warm-hearted Aunt Mercy Lovell helps a naive young couple—Lily and Lawrence Everett—and the struggling Allen family learn economy, duty, and self-control. The opening of the novel shows Aunt Mercy visiting the lavish Everett home and instantly sensing “a leak” in a household where careless spending and scheming servants flourish while Lily knows little of housekeeping. Her quiet reconnoissance exposes waste and theft, she counsels Lawrence, recounts her own youthful heartbreak that left her a guardian to his family, and then, after his ill-judged leniency, departs. The narrative shifts to Mary and Joseph Allen—kin to Lawrence—whose farm is lost to drink until a temperance pledge and Aunt Mercy’s aid set them to work, school, and thrift. When a business crisis looms for Lawrence, Aunt Mercy returns, catches the servants in a theft ring with a grocer, and has them arrested, while Lily begins learning practical economy. The excerpt closes with the reformed Allens modestly prospering—Joseph as head gardener, a cow and chickens secured, and children diligent at school and work, earning the goodwill of their employers. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cBoston: Graves and Young, 1865
653 _aChristian life -- Juvenile fiction
653 _aHousehold employees -- Juvenile fiction
653 _aAunts -- Juvenile fiction
653 _aDiligence -- Juvenile fiction
653 _aTheft -- Juvenile fiction
653 _aMarriage -- Juvenile fiction
653 _aHome economics -- Juvenile fiction
830 0 _aBrookside series
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77089
999 _c117811
_d117811