Betty Hartman

The O'Connell Children Betty Hartman

Abandoned by their parents, the O'Connell children fight to stay together. Evicted from their one-room tenement flat, they are virtually homeless, as so many other children were in New York City in the 1850's. Gregory, the eldest at age ten, takes on the responsibility for his three younger siblings, a man's job. His eight-year-old sister Belinda serves as a surrogate mother for the youngest two children. Theirs is a tenuous existence, supplemented by the Catholic school attended by the oldest two. When there is some sort of windfall, they all share in it equally, as they also share all their hardships together. Will they somehow manage to survive and still remain together as a family? Only time will tell.