The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Volume II
The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Volume II gathers a collection of New England village tales centered on quiet acts of loyalty, generosity, and social pretension among elderly women and unassuming rural folk. In "A White Heron," young Sylvia, who has come to live with her grandmother, Mrs. Tilley, on a remote farm, meets a young ornithologist hunting a rare white heron. Fascinated by him, she climbs a great pine at dawn to locate the bird's nest, but when he offers money for the secret, she chooses silence, protecting the heron rather than betraying it for the stranger's sake. In "The Flight of Betsey Lane," three old women at the Byfleet Poor-house—Betsey Lane, Mrs. Lavina Dow, and Peggy Bond—pick beans and swap stories. After a visit from Mrs. Katy Strafford, who gives Betsey money, Betsey secretly slips away to attend the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, riding freight trains and befriending strangers along the way, while her worried friends fear she has drowned herself. She returns triumphant, having spent frugally, met a doctor who promises to examine Peggy's failing eyesight, and brought back small gifts for everyone. "The Dulham Ladies" follows Miss Dobin and Miss Lucinda, daughters of a once-eminent minister, who cling to memories of their mother's genteel Boston connections. Anxious about their thinning hair and fading social standing, they travel to Westbury and are talked into buying ill-fitting frizzes by a flattering French wigmaker, returning home delighted with their purchase despite their servant Hetty's dismay and the neighbors' mockery. "Mrs. Peet" is a first-person narrator's train encounter with the elderly, dispossessed Mrs. Peet, cheated out of her farm by her nephew Isaiah Peet, who is traveling to live with relatives in Shrewsbury, cat and meager belongings in tow. Later news reveals she adapted happily to her new life before dying content, still resentful of Isaiah's trickery but grateful for her nieces' care. "The Guests of Mrs. Timms" (opening) introduces Mrs. Persis Flagg and Miss Cynthia Pickett, two Woodville women preparing an eagerly anticipated visit to an old acquaintance, Mrs. Timms, in Baxter, fussing over proper etiquette, gifts, and dress before setting out by stagecoach, during which they witness a comic mishap involving another passenger's overly presumptuous social call. Shorter pieces include "The Rose of Time" concerning Mrs. Bickford's indecision over which of her three deceased husbands' memory should receive a rose she has grown, ultimately settling the matter through her nephew John and his sweetheart; "The Passing of Sister ——" (the sketch's own title is not given in this portion), in which Mrs. Crowe and Sarah Ann Binson keep the night watch over the body of their generous friend Temperance Dent, sharing memories of her selfless kindness, including a great sacrifice she made for a struggling schoolteacher; and "Martha's Lady," in which a plain, awkward servant girl, inspired by the kindness of a visiting young guest, Helena Vernon, devotes decades of quiet, faithful service and hidden love to an ideal of her, culminating in Helena's return as an aged woman and a final acknowledgment of Martha's lifelong devotion.
By Sarah Orne Jewett · First published 1925 · Genre: Short Story, Literary Fiction, Regional Fiction · 11 chapters · 75,296 words
First lines
I.
The woods were already filled with shadows one June evening, just before eight o'clock, though a bright sunset still glimmered faintly among the trunks of the trees. A little girl was driving home her cow, a plodding, dilatory, provoking creature in her behavior, but a valued companion for all that. They were going away from the western light, and striking deep into the dark woods, but their feet were familiar with the path, and it was no matter whether their eyes could see it or not.
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Genres
- Short Story — The text is explicitly a collection of distinct complete narratives with individual plots, characters, and thematic resolutions, exemplifying the short story form.
- Literary Fiction — The prose demonstrates sustained literary merit through careful imagery, precise language, thematic complexity, and psychological depth that transcends genre conventions.
- Regional Fiction — The narratives are fundamentally rooted in New England rural settings with authentic local dialect, regional customs, folk traditions, and distinctive regional character types that define the storytelling.
- Realism — The fiction employs realistic representation of ordinary life, plausible characters and situations, authentic social conditions, and empirical observation rather than romantic or fantastical embellishment.
Tags
New England · rural fiction · female characters · elderly women · childhood · coming of age · moral choice · self-sacrifice · loyalty · nature · wildlife · poverty
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The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Volume II is listed on Textopian as a short story by Sarah Orne Jewett, dated 1925 CE.
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- Work type: Short story
- Author: Sarah Orne Jewett
- Date: 1925 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Short Story, Literary Fiction, Regional Fiction, Realism, Social Realism
- Length: 75,296 words
- Structure: 11 chapters, 765 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for The Best Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett, Volume II by Sarah Orne Jewett
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Contents
- A White Heron
- The Flight of Betsey Lane
- The Dulham Ladies
- Going to Shrewsbury
- The only Rose
- Miss Tempy's Watchers
- Martha's Lady
- The Guests of Mrs. Timms
- The Town Poor
- The Hiltons' Holiday
- Aunt Cynthy Dallett