Drought Angel

In the 1930s, Texas in the United States suffered an unprecedented severe drought and famine. The land cracked, and people barely survived. After five-year-old Flora lost both her parents, her mean aunt Sybil regarded her as a burden and even planned to sell her to a circus. At this critical moment, Clara, a kind single mother, traded the family’s last two pounds of flour for her and brought her back to the Miller household. Yet the Millers were also destitute. Mrs. Martha was initially resistant to taking in this extra child.

Flora possessed a mysterious gift — she could understand the language of animals. Thanks to this ability, on her first day at the Millers’, she learned from a field mouse that a jar of dried corn was buried under the tool shed, relieving the family’s urgent food shortage. At the market, she heard the thoughts of a hen that Sybil considered worthless and predicted it could lay eggs. Right then, the hen laid thirty eggs in a row, humiliating Sybil publicly. Later, when Flora went into the mountains to gather medicinal herbs with her foster brother Daniel, she rescued Buck, the beloved dog of the renowned doctor Lucas, from an animal trap, forming a bond with Lucas.

Nevertheless, Flora’s gift also attracted jealousy and disaster. Envious of the Millers’ improving fortunes, Sybil sneaked into their medicinal herb field at night and released swarms of pests, then trampled all the wild ginseng herself. She intended to get the Millers arrested by the sheriff for failing to deliver their goods. Flora called upon Pip the bluebird, who led hundreds of birds to wipe out the pests. She then ventured deep into the back mountains to fetch water from the miraculous spring guarded by a ferocious grizzly bear, reviving the crushed ginseng instantly. Later in the mountains, she saved Reynard, heir to an Eastern noble family, from a wild boar, receiving a gold watch bearing the family crest as a token of gratitude.

After spying the gold watch, Sybil was overcome by greed and falsely accused Flora of murdering the young nobleman. A corrupt judge subjected Daniel, who took the blame, to torture without investigation, leaving Daniel on the brink of death. At the last moment, Reynard arrived at the court, exposed the truth publicly, and brought the corrupt official and Sybil to justice. Afterwards, Flora became Lucas’s apprentice to study medicine, arousing the jealousy of her senior sister Lily. Lily poisoned Flora’s tea with ginseng powder, yet Flora chose to forgive her. The two eventually reconciled and studied medicine side by side. In the barren years, Flora lit up hope for everyone with her innocence and kindness, embarking on the path to become a great female physician.