The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations

"The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations" by Charlotte M. Yonge is the story of a family of eleven children who learned to grow up without a mother. Their father, a country doctor, generous, absent-minded, with a temper that prevents his children at times from trusting him, had become accustomed to not having to deal with the domestic labor in the household. After the death of his wife, it's his oldest daughters who take on that responsibility to raise and tend to the family with love and honor.