Why is Lyddie so concerned about saving her family's farm?

Both pride and her goal of reuniting her family make Lyddie so determined to save the family farm. Lyddie's vision of what would bring her the most happiness is understandable: She wants to live with her father, mother, and siblings in the same home where they can make a living while operating as a family unit. Each fracturing of her family caused Lyddie emotional trauma. First her father left the family, and they had struggled along without him for two years, never even hearing whether he was dead or alive. At the beginning of the story, Lyddie is convinced her father will return, and that's why she refuses to leave the cabin with her mother. Lyddie's mother is mentally ill and not capable of supporting or even caring for the children. She takes the two little sisters to live with her sister and brother-in-law, leaving Lyddie alone with Charlie. The two children work hard to run the farm over the winter, but in the spring they receive word they are being hired out to pay debts. Thus, in Lyddie's mind, the way to bring everyone back together again is to earn enough money to pay off the debts on the farm.

Another reason that motivates Lyddie is pride. In the first and second chapters, Lyddie is shown to be fiercely proud of her home. It doesn't compare to the Stevenses' rich farm, but it is her family's, and that gives her some pride of ownership. When the farm must be sold, she is devastated, because that takes away the only family possession they have and it leaves her with no place to go to reunite her family.