Freckles

Freckles is a novel by Gene Stratton Porter about a young adult orphan who finds work, and the beauty of nature, in a job at a lumber camp.

Available online here.

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Tropes included

• Abusive Parents: Freckles fears this in his backstory.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: One villain will not return without being at least half drunk.
• Alone in a Crowd: How Freckles felt in the orphange.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Freckles fears his parents would be this.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Angel dreads that she will find bad parents at the end of her quest, because they are aristocrats.

"A Lord-man!" she groaned despairingly. "A Lord-man! Bet my hoecake's scorched! Here I've gone and pledged my word to Freckles I'd find him some decent relatives, that he could be proud of, and now there isn't a chance out of a dozen that he'll have to be ashamed of them after all. It's too mean!"

• Benevolent Boss: McLean
• Blood on These Hands: One villain objects to murder.
• Blue Blood: Angel has ancestors that reach back to Plymouth Rock. Freckles turns out to be a grandson of a nobleman.
• Bound and Gagged: Freckles as prisoner
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: A Luna moth causes Freckles deep frustration at his ignorance, a fit which lasts until it occurs to him that he could learn better.
• Camp Cook: First person Freckles meets at the lumbering camp.
• Changeling Fantasy: Inverted
• Cold-Blooded Torture: How Wessner intends to kill Freckles.
• Contrived Coincidence: Angel's finding Freckles's aunt and uncle.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Freckles. He was not only a Door Step Baby but seriously injured at the point at which he was found.
• Death by Despair: Starts to kill Freckles at one point.
• Dirty Business: Black Jack realizes this when he thinks he has a chance with Angel.
• Dirty Coward: Several villains
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Freckles fears pity.
• Door Step Baby: Freckles's Backstory
• Dramatic Thunder: Rouses Freckles from his thoughts at one point.
• Even Evil Has Standards: One villain objects to watching torture. Another objects to the notion of murder.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: A bribe attempt is made
• Face Your Fears: Freckles faces down the swamp through his first weeks, and then when he kills a rattlesnake.
• First Kiss: Angel doesn't quite realize its significance, but Freckles does.
• Fish Out of Water: Freckles in the Limberlost at first
• Friend to All Living Things: Freckles.
• Funetik Aksent: Freckles speaks with an Irish accent despite being born and raised in Chicago.
• Genius Loci: Freckles takes Angel for this.
• Ghibli Hills: The Limberlost, at least among those who know it.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Angel is convinced she will just heal after a cut.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Freckles ponders it when he finds a feather.
• Gray Eyes: Freckles
• Guardian Angel: Angel hails Freckles as this.
• Hair of Gold: Angel
• Heartwarming Orphan: Freckles is a bit old for the role but still pulls it off.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Freckles pushes Angel out of the way of a fallen tree and gets hurt himself.
• Home, Sweet Home: Freckles longs for a place to claim as home.
• How Dare You Die on Me!
• I Choose to Stay: Freckles in the end
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Angel
• In the Blood: Freckles fears this
• Known Only By Their Nickname: Many characters in Freckles are known solely by nickname, such as Freckles himself and the bird woman.
• The Lady's Favour: A blue ribbon for Freckles
• Loners Are Freaks: Mrs. Duncan worries about the effect of solitude on Freckles.
• The Lost Woods
• Love At First Sight: Freckles for Angel.
• Manly Tears: When Lord O'More hears that Angel can tell them about their nephew.
• Meaningful Rename: Freckles is given a new legal name when he's hired
• Non-Idle Rich: Freckles is much impressed by them.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Angel before the villains.
• Orphanage of Fear: Freckles's orphanage was not cruel, but it was not pleasant, either.
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Of less sentimental importance to Freckles that usual.
• Owl Be Damned: The owls' hoots at night are unnerving.
• Parental Abandonment: Freckles
• Parental Marriage Veto: Discussed
• Parental Substitute: Freckles has two, Mc Lean for father and Mrs. Duncan for mother.
• People of Hair Color: redhaired Irish
• Post Dramatic Stress Disorder: Freckles, after a fight.
• Plucky Girl: What seals the Love At First Sight for Freckles is the knowledge that she knows about, and does not fear, the snakes
• The Promise: Freckles makes one when he realizes he can cure his ignorance.
• Redheaded Hero: Freckles
• Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Freckles is a friend to all living things --except snakes.
• Revenge: Freckles confesses to desiring this.
• Scars Are Forever: Freckles warns Angel that her cut could scar.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Freckles doesn't recognize the Bird Woman dressed for a party.
• So Proud of You: McLean of Freckles
• Suddenly-Suitable Suitor
• Swamps Are Evil: Subverted and played with
• They Call Me Mister Tibbs: Angel is struck by Freckles talking of Mr. McLean, after McLean called Freckles his son.
• They Have the Scent: They try to catch Black Jack with bloodhounds in Freckles
• Threshold Guardians: The cook tells Freckles the boss won't have a place for him.
• The Tramp: Freckles looks like this but is truly seeking work.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Freckles to his uncle
• Vice City: Chicago, where parents might die and no one be able to find out who their children belonged to
• Youthful Freckles: Guess who?