The answer to this question can be found in chapter 14. This chapter begins by narrating about the increased pace of the factory and how the various girls are responding to it. Several are not able to keep up. Lyddie is able to keep up; however, she is asked to train a new girl, Brigid. Lyddie is not happy about it, and Diana keeps pressuring everybody to sign the petition. Lyddie is averse to signing it, because she doesn't want to lose her job and her income. Money is extremely important to Lyddie. That's why the letter that Luke brings is such an important part of Lyddie's character development. The letter is from Ezekiel, the runaway slave that Lyddie helped earlier in the novel. The letter explains that he was able to escape to Canada largely in part because of the money she gave him. Included with the letter is money, with interest, to repay Lyddie's loan to him. Lyddie realizes how much she has changed. She once gave away her entire savings to a stranger, and she now struggles with sending her own mother a single dollar.
Luke Stevens is a former neighbor of Lyddie. Luke's family is Quaker, and they drive Lyddie to her work at Cutler's Tavern and Baker's Mill. Their great kindness towards Lyddie stands in stark contrast to how she is subsequently treated at her various jobs. So when Luke turns up at the factory one day, Lyddie is very pleased to see him indeed, though initially she doesn't recognize him. Luke gives Lyddie a package and tells her that all is well with her brother Charlie.
Inside the package is a letter from Ezekiel Freeman, the runaway slave that Lyddie once helped to escape. Ezekiel says that he's safely made his way to Canada and is now a free man. He was able to escape thanks to help from Luke's family—as Quakers strongly opposed to slavery—and Lyddie, who gave him the money she received from selling a calf. As a token of gratitude to Lyddie, Ezekiel encloses a bank draft for the sum of fifty dollars.
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