The Courting of Sister Wisby (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Sarah Orne Jewett
- First Published: 1887
- Type of Plot: Regional, frame story
- Time of Work: The late nineteenth century
- Setting: A New England village
- Principal Characters: A walking woman, Mrs. Goodsoe, Mrs. Jerry Foss, Jim Heron, Eliza Wisby, Silas Brimblecom, Phebe Brimblecom
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Husbands, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Wives, Love or romance, Nineteenth century, Marriage, Rural or country life, New England, Women, Single people, Widows or widowers, Generation gap
- Locales: New England
The Story
While walking one August day in a sunny pasture, the female narrator encounters Mrs. Goodsoe, her old friend, gathering a medicinal herb called mullein. They sit, eat some peaches the narrator has brought along, and chat. Mrs. Goodsoe needs little prompting as she reminisces garrulously. First, she mentions Mrs. Peck, a widow who had two daughters. One of them was forsaken by a “rovin’” boyfriend; the other married Jim Heron, the first Irishman ever seen in the region. Remembering Heron reminds Mrs. Goodsoe of Mrs. Jerry Foss, a hard-scrabble widow whose three...
[The entire page is 1374 words long]
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