The Midwife’s Apprentice, by Karen Cushman

She was called Brat, she lived stealing and helping with harvests to sleep in the barn. She slept in a dunghill on frosty nights.

The boys in the village would tease her call her Dung beetle.

Brat begged a village lady for some food and was told "if you don’t work you don’t eat".

The lady found some work for her, and rewarded her with some dry bread and a mug of something sweet. Brat cleaned the lady's house very clean. She took her to the cottage where the babies are born. Brat, now called Beetle loved cats. She would give her bread and cheese and some of her left overs.

The midwife's name was Mrs. Jane Sharp, she had Beetle sleeping on the floor, beat it sure beat the dunghill and the barn. She would take her to deliver the babies but she couldn't be in the room with her she didn't want her to learn her skills. However, the midwife was too slow getting back to town one day and Beetle was the only one there to deliver a baby...

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