MRS. STOWE'S NOVELS.
UNIFORM EDITIONS.
- UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
- NINA GORDON.
- AGNES OF SORRENTO.
- THE MINISTER'S WOOING.
- THE MAYFLOWER.
- THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND.
- OLDTOWN FOLKS.
Each in one volume 12mo.
Price, $2.00.
FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., Publishers.
OLDTOWN FOLKS.
BYHARRIET BEECHER STOWE,
AUTHOR OF "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN," ETC.BOSTON: FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., SUCCESSORS TO TICKNOR AND FIELDS.
1869.Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by HARRIET BEECHER STOWE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Connecticut. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & Co., CAMBRIDGE.
PREFACE.
GENTLE READER,—It is customary to omit prefaces. I beg you to make an exception in my particular case; I have something I really want to say. I have an object in this book, more than the mere telling of a story, and you can always judge of a book better if you compare it with the author's object. My object is to interpret to the world the New England life and character in that particular time of its history which may be called the seminal period. I would endeavor to show you New England in its seed-bed, before the hot suns of modern progress had developed its sprouting germs into the great trees of to-day.
New England has been to these United States what the Dorian hive was to Greece. It has always been a capital country to emigrate from, and North, South, East, and West have been populated largely from New England, so that the seed-bed of New England was the seed-bed of this great American Republic, and of all that is likely to come of it.
New England people cannot be thus interpreted without calling into view many grave considerations and necessitating some serious thinking.
In doing this work, I have tried to make my mind as still and passive as a looking-glass, or a mountain lake, and then to give you merely the images reflected there. I desire that you should see the characteristic page: iv-v (Table of Contents) [View Page iv-v (Table of Contents) ] persons of those times, and hear them talk; and sometimes I have taken an author's liberty of explaining their characters to you, and telling you why they talked and lived as they did.
My studies for this object have been Pre-Raphaelite,—taken from real characters, real scenes, and real incidents. And some of those things in the story which may appear most romantic and like fiction are simple renderings and applications of facts.
Any one who may be curious enough to consult Rev. Elias Nason's book, called "Sir Charles Henry Frankland, or Boston in the Colonial Times," will there see a full description of the old manor-house which in this story is called the Dench House. It was by that name I always heard it spoken of in my boyhood.
In portraying the various characters which I have introduced, I have tried to maintain the part simply of a sympathetic spectator. I propose neither to teach nor preach through them, any farther than any spectator of life is preached to by what he sees of the workings of human nature around him.
Though Calvinist, Arminian, High-Church Episcopalian, sceptic, and simple believer all speak in their turn, I merely listen, and endeavor to understand and faithfully represent the inner life of each. I myself am but the observer and reporter, seeing much, doubting much, questioning much, and believing with all my heart in only a very few things.
And so I take my leave of you.
HORACE HOLYOKE.
CONTENTS.
- CHAPTER I. OLDTOWN AND THE MINISTER. 1
- CHAPTER II. MY FATHER. 11
- CHAPTER III. MY GRANDMOTHER. 18
- CHAPTER IV. THE VILLAGE DO-NOTHING. 28
- CHAPTER V. THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE. 39
- CHAPTER VI. FIRE-LIGHT TALKS IN MY GRANDMOTHER'S KITCHEN. 61
- CHAPTER VII. OLD CRAB SMITH. 85
- CHAPTER VIII. MISS ASPHYXIA. 97
- CHAPTER IX. HARRY'S FIRST DAY'S WORK. 109
- CHAPTER X. MISS ASPHYXIA'S SYSTEM. 115
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- CHAPTER XI. THE CRISIS. 128
- CHAPTER XII. THE LION'S MOUTH SHUT. 134
- CHAPTER XIII. THE EMPTY BIRD'S-NEST. 141
- CHAPTER XIV. THE DAY IN FAIRY-LAND. 146
- CHAPTER XV. THE OLD MANOR-HOUSE. 159
- CHAPTER XVI. SAM LAWSON'S DISCOVERIES. 169
- CHAPTER XVII. THE VISIT TO THE HAUNTED HOUSE. 179
- CHAPTER XVIII. TINA'S ADOPTION. 198
- CHAPTER XIX. MISS MEHITABLE'S LETTER, AND THE REPLY, GIVING FURTHER HINTS OF THE STORY. 212
- CHAPTER XX. MISS ASPHYXIA GOES IN PURSUIT, AND MY GRANDMOTHER GIVES HER VIEWS ON EDUCATION. 234
- CHAPTER XXI. WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH THE BOY?. 249
- CHAPTER XXII. DAILY LIVING IN OLDTOWN. 261
- CHAPTER XXIII. WE TAKE A STEP UP IN THE WORLD. 274
- CHAPTER XXIV. WE BEHOLD GRANDEUR. 290
- CHAPTER XXV. EASTER SUNDAY. 305
- CHAPTER XXVI. WHAT "OUR FOLKS" SAID AT OLDTOWN. 325
- CHAPTER XXVII. HOW WE KEPT THANKSGIVING AT OLDTOWN. 336
- CHAPTER XXVIII. THE RAID ON OLDTOWN, AND UNCLE FLIAKIM'S BRAVERY. 354
- CHAPTER XXIX. MY GRANDMOTHER'S BLUE BOOK. 367
- CHAPTER XXX. WE BEGIN TO BE GROWN-UP PEOPLE. 391
- CHAPTER XXXI. WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH TINA? 405
- CHAPTER XXXII. THE JOURNEY TO CLOUDLAND. 414
- CHAPTER XXXIII. SCHOOL-LIFE IN CLOUDLAND. 421
- CHAPTER XXXIV. OUR MINISTER IN CLOUDLAND. 441
- CHAPTER XXXV. THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION. 457
- CHAPTER XXXVI. AFTER THE REVIVAL. 468
- CHAPTER XXXVII. THE MINISTER'S WOOD-SPELL. 478
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- CHAPTER XXXVIII. ELLERY DAVENPORT. 487
- CHAPTER XXXIX. LAST DAYS IN CLOUDLAND. 498
- CHAPTER XL. WE ENTER COLLEGE. 508
- CHAPTER XLI. NIGHT TALKS. 519
- CHAPTER XLII. SPRING VACATION AT OLDTOWN. 525
- CHAPTER XLIII. WHAT OUR FOLKS THOUGHT ABOUT IT. 535
- CHAPTER XLIV. MARRIAGE PREPARATIONS. 548
- CHAPTER XLV. WEDDING BELLS. 558
- CHAPTER XLVI. WEDDING AFTER-TALKS AT OLDTOWN. 570
- CHAPTER XLVII. BEHIND THE CURTAIN. 576
- CHAPTER XLVIII. TINA'S SOLUTION. 584
- CHAPTER XLIX. WHAT CAME OF IT. 592
- CHAPTER L. THE LAST CHAPTER. 602