Hard work and self-reliance are recurring themes in the novel. Mr. Woodlawn, in particular, imparts these ideas to his children through conversation, example, and expectation. When Caddie demonstrates an ability and interest in repairing clocks, Mr. Woodlawn encourages her industriousness and her “eager fingers” (81). He asks that Caddie be his partner in his clock repair business, and when he and Caddie finish their first job, “one [is] as proud as the other” (81). By promoting Caddie’s interest in completing a job, Mr. Woodlawn instills within her a lifelong work ethic, and Caddie’s ability to fix clocks makes her more self-reliant.

When Mr. Woodlawn reveals his family’s past, he tells the children that he earned everything he has in live with his “own two hands” (97), communicating that doing so is valuable and superior to being handed everything. The Woodlawn children get the message that working hard and being self-reliant is important. Tom works at the Dunnville store to earn enough money to buy Katie’s valentine, and all three of the Woodlawn adventurers excitedly agree to plow the back field. Even Tom’s story about Pee-Wee highlights a man who does duplicitous things to earn his way, and Caddie is outraged at the way that Pee-Wee cheats his way to success, an outrage born of her father’s lesson about the importance of honest hard work.