chapter 3


There was some hauling to be done at the lower end of the wood-lot, and
Ethan was out early the next day.

The winter morning was as clear as crystal. The sunrise burned red in a
pure sky, the shadows on the rim of the wood-lot were darkly blue, and
beyond the white and scintillating fields patches of far-off forest hung
like smoke.

It was in the early morning stillness, when his muscles were swinging
to their familiar task and his lungs expanding with long draughts of
mountain air, that Ethan did his clearest thinking. He and Zeena had not
exchanged a word after the door of their room had closed on them. She
had measured out some drops from a medicine-bottle on a chair by the bed
and, after swallowing them, and wrapping her head in a piece of yellow
flannel, had lain down with her face turned away. Ethan undressed
hurriedly and blew out the light so that he should not see her when he
took his place at her side. As he lay there he could hear Mattie moving
about in her room, and her candle, sending its small ray across the
landing, drew a scarcely perceptible line of light under his door. He
kept his eyes fixed on the light till it vanished. Then the room grew
perfectly black, and not a sound was audible but Zeena's asthmatic
breathing. Ethan felt confusedly that there were many things he ought
to think about, but through his tingling veins and tired brain only one
sensation throbbed: the warmth of Mattie's shoulder against his. Why had
he not kissed her when he held her there? A few hours earlier he would
not have asked himself the question. Even a few minutes earlier, when
they had stood alone outside the house, he would not have dared to think
of kissing her. But since he had seen her lips in the lamplight he felt
that they were his.

Now, in the bright morning air, her face was still before him. It was
part of the sun's red and of the pure glitter on the snow. How the
girl had changed since she had come to Starkfield! He remembered what a
colourless slip of a thing she had looked the day he had met her at the
station. And all the first winter, how she had shivered with cold when
the northerly gales shook the thin clapboards and the snow beat like
hail against the loose-hung windows!

He had been afraid that she would hate the hard life, the cold and
loneliness; but not a sign of discontent escaped her. Zeena took the
view that Mattie was bound to make the best of Starkfield since she
hadn't any other place to go to; but this did not strike Ethan as
conclusive. Zeena, at any rate, did not apply the principle in her own
case.

He felt all the more sorry for the girl because misfortune had, in
a sense, indentured her to them. Mattie Silver was the daughter of
a cousin of Zenobia Frome's, who had inflamed his clan with mingled
sentiments of envy and admiration by descending from the hills to
Connecticut, where he had married a Stamford girl and succeeded to
her father's thriving "drug" business. Unhappily Orin Silver, a man of
far-reaching aims, had died too soon to prove that the end justifies the
means. His accounts revealed merely what the means had been; and these
were such that it was fortunate for his wife and daughter that his books
were examined only after his impressive funeral. His wife died of the
disclosure, and Mattie, at twenty, was left alone to make her way on the
fifty dollars obtained from the sale of her piano. For this purpose her
equipment, though varied, was inadequate. She could trim a hat, make
molasses candy, recite "Curfew shall not ring to-night," and play "The
Lost Chord" and a pot-pourri from "Carmen." When she tried to extend the
field of her activities in the direction of stenography and book-keeping
her health broke down, and six months on her feet behind the counter of
a department store did not tend to restore it. Her nearest relations had
been induced to place their savings in her father's hands, and though,
after his death, they ungrudgingly acquitted themselves of the Christian
duty of returning good for evil by giving his daughter all the advice
at their disposal, they could hardly be expected to supplement it by
material aid. But when Zenobia's doctor recommended her looking about
for some one to help her with the house-work the clan instantly saw the
chance of exacting a compensation from Mattie. Zenobia, though doubtful
of the girl's efficiency, was tempted by the freedom to find fault
without much risk of losing her; and so Mattie came to Starkfield.

Zenobia's fault-finding was of the silent kind, but not the less
penetrating for that. During the first months Ethan alternately burned
with the desire to see Mattie defy her and trembled with fear of the
result. Then the situation grew less strained. The pure air, and the
long summer hours in the open, gave back life and elasticity to Mattie,
and Zeena, with more leisure to devote to her complex ailments, grew
less watchful of the girl's omissions; so that Ethan, struggling on
under the burden of his barren farm and failing saw-mill, could at least
imagine that peace reigned in his house.

There was really, even now, no tangible evidence to the contrary; but
since the previous night a vague dread had hung on his sky-line. It was
formed of Zeena's obstinate silence, of Mattie's sudden look of warning,
of the memory of just such fleeting imperceptible signs as those which
told him, on certain stainless mornings, that before night there would
be rain.

His dread was so strong that, man-like, he sought to postpone certainty.
The hauling was not over till mid-day, and as the lumber was to be
delivered to Andrew Hale, the Starkfield builder, it was really easier
for Ethan to send Jotham Powell, the hired man, back to the farm on
foot, and drive the load down to the village himself. He had scrambled
up on the logs, and was sitting astride of them, close over his shaggy
grays, when, coming between him and their streaming necks, he had a
vision of the warning look that Mattie had given him the night before.

"If there's going to be any trouble I want to be there," was his vague
reflection, as he threw to Jotham the unexpected order to unhitch the
team and lead them back to the barn.

It was a slow trudge home through the heavy fields, and when the two
men entered the kitchen Mattie was lifting the coffee from the stove and
Zeena was already at the table. Her husband stopped short at sight of
her. Instead of her usual calico wrapper and knitted shawl she wore her
best dress of brown merino, and above her thin strands of hair, which
still preserved the tight undulations of the crimping-pins, rose a hard
perpendicular bonnet, as to which Ethan's clearest notion was that he
had to pay five dollars for it at the Bettsbridge Emporium. On the floor
beside her stood his old valise and a bandbox wrapped in newspapers.

"Why, where are you going, Zeena?" he exclaimed.

"I've got my shooting pains so bad that I'm going over to Bettsbridge
to spend the night with Aunt Martha Pierce and see that new doctor," she
answered in a matter-of-fact tone, as if she had said she was going into
the store-room to take a look at the preserves, or up to the attic to go
over the blankets.

In spite of her sedentary habits such abrupt decisions were not without
precedent in Zeena's history. Twice or thrice before she had suddenly
packed Ethan's valise and started off to Bettsbridge, or even
Springfield, to seek the advice of some new doctor, and her husband had
grown to dread these expeditions because of their cost. Zeena always
came back laden with expensive remedies, and her last visit to
Springfield had been commemorated by her paying twenty dollars for an
electric battery of which she had never been able to learn the use. But
for the moment his sense of relief was so great as to preclude all other
feelings. He had now no doubt that Zeena had spoken the truth in saying,
the night before, that she had sat up because she felt "too mean" to
sleep: her abrupt resolve to seek medical advice showed that, as usual,
she was wholly absorbed in her health.

As if expecting a protest, she continued plaintively; "If you're too
busy with the hauling I presume you can let Jotham Powell drive me over
with the sorrel in time to ketch the train at the Flats."

Her husband hardly heard what she was saying. During the winter months
there was no stage between Starkfield and Bettsbridge, and the trains
which stopped at Corbury Flats were slow and infrequent. A rapid
calculation showed Ethan that Zeena could not be back at the farm before
the following evening....

"If I'd supposed you'd 'a' made any objection to Jotham Powell's driving
me over--" she began again, as though his silence had implied refusal. On
the brink of departure she was always seized with a flux of words. "All
I know is," she continued, "I can't go on the way I am much longer.
The pains are clear away down to my ankles now, or I'd 'a' walked in to
Starkfield on my own feet, sooner'n put you out, and asked Michael Eady
to let me ride over on his wagon to the Flats, when he sends to meet the
train that brings his groceries. I'd 'a' had two hours to wait in the
station, but I'd sooner 'a' done it, even with this cold, than to have
you say--"

"Of course Jotham'll drive you over," Ethan roused himself to answer.
He became suddenly conscious that he was looking at Mattie while Zeena
talked to him, and with an effort he turned his eyes to his wife. She
sat opposite the window, and the pale light reflected from the banks of
snow made her face look more than usually drawn and bloodless, sharpened
the three parallel creases between ear and cheek, and drew querulous
lines from her thin nose to the corners of her mouth. Though she was but
seven years her husband's senior, and he was only twenty-eight, she was
already an old woman.

Ethan tried to say something befitting the occasion, but there was only
one thought in his mind: the fact that, for the first time since
Mattie had come to live with them, Zeena was to be away for a night. He
wondered if the girl were thinking of it too....

He knew that Zeena must be wondering why he did not offer to drive her
to the Flats and let Jotham Powell take the lumber to Starkfield, and
at first he could not think of a pretext for not doing so; then he said:
"I'd take you over myself, only I've got to collect the cash for the
lumber."

As soon as the words were spoken he regretted them, not only because
they were untrue--there being no prospect of his receiving cash payment
from Hale--but also because he knew from experience the imprudence of
letting Zeena think he was in funds on the eve of one of her therapeutic
excursions. At the moment, however, his one desire was to avoid the long
drive with her behind the ancient sorrel who never went out of a walk.

Zeena made no reply: she did not seem to hear what he had said. She had
already pushed her plate aside, and was measuring out a draught from a
large bottle at her elbow.

"It ain't done me a speck of good, but I guess I might as well use it
up," she remarked; adding, as she pushed the empty bottle toward Mattie:
"If you can get the taste out it'll do for pickles."




gradesaver
While hauling lumber early the next morning, Ethan reflects on the events of the previous night and circumstances that brought Mattie to Starkfield. Ethan went to bed, blowing out the candle before he crawled in so as to avoid looking at his wife. Under the door, he could see just a flicker of the light from Mattie's candle, all the way on the other side of the landing. He watched the light until it went out. He wished that he had kissed Mattie while they had been out on their walk. Mattie's father was Zeena's cousin. He had left the hills and traveled to Connecticut, but he died too young to make his fortune. His wife died soon after, leaving Mattie to fend for herself. She had no real skills, and the difficulties of working for a living disagreed with her health. When Zeena's doctor recommended that Zeena find a housekeeper, the family arranged to have Mattie stay at the Frome farm. Although life there has been harder than her old life in Conneticut, Mattie has been cheerful and happy. However, she has little talent for housekeeping, and her ineffectiveness vexes Zeena. When he finishes hauling the lumber, Ethan thinks about the tension in his house. He worries that trouble will come up between Mattie and Zeena, so he decides to return home rather than deliver the lumber. He arrives home to find his wife dressed for travel: she has decided to go to Bettsbridge to see a new doctor. She will spend the night with her aunt; for the first time since Mattie arrived, Mattie and Ethan are going to be in the house overnight without Zeena. Ethan, anxious to avoid a long ride with Zeena, decides to have Jotham Powell, the hired man, use the sorrel to drive Zeena to the station. Ethan will use the other horses to haul lumber.
Ethan's passion for Mattie has become more difficult to control. Although a few days ago the thought of kissing Mattie would never have occurred to him, now the desire to do so is becoming irresistible. He once contented himself with fantasies of simply being allowed to stay near her; now, he is thinking about having her physically. Zeena is only thirty-five years old, but she is prematurely an old woman. The physical descriptions of her make clear that she cannot be an object of erotic desire. Ethan is twenty-eight, and Zeena arouses no passion in him. The Frome's poverty is clear in this chapter. Mattie is destitute after the death of her parents, and she is forced to take refuge with the already-struggling Fromes. She has nowhere else to go. But Ethan's resources are stretched to the limit: when he sees Zeena in her bonnet, he cannot help but recall how much the bonnet cost. And although he is thrilled by the prospect of being alone in the house with Mattie, he fears the expensive new medicines that Zeena might buy. The fact that these three people are together in the house is not a matter of choice. Ethan was forced to return to the farm because of poverty: after his father, someone had to take care of his mother, and they lacked the funds to hire help or support Ethan's studies. Mattie is destitute, and needs the shelter and food provided by the Fromes' farm. And because of poverty, fantasies of leaving Zeena are an impossible. It would be heartless to leave Zeena, who is ailing and has no way to provide for herself. All three characters are trapped. They are bound by poverty into the same house, and the combination of the Fromes' loveless marriage and Ethan's growing passion for Mattie makes for a very dangerous situation
shmoop
Ethan gets up early in the morning to do some wood hauling. The day is see-through, with a huge burning sunrise, showing glimpses of the forest in the distance. Zeena and Ethan hadn't talked last night in their bedroom, and both seemed to want to be as far away from each other in the bed as possible. In bed, Ethan had continued fantasizing about Mattie. He wishes he had kissed her. This was a new desire. When he'd seen Mattie's lips by the light of Zeena's lamp "he felt that they were his" . Ethan's head is full of Mattie's face. He thinks about how much healthier and happier she looks than when she first came to live with them. There was some doubt as to whether Mattie would be able to deal with the harsh climate, and lack of company, but she never complained. Zeena thinks Mattie doesn't complain because she knows she has nowhere else to go. Ethan thinks it's something deeper, and notes in his mind that Zeena doesn't have anywhere else to go either, and she complains all the time. Mattie father was Zeena's cousin. He recently died, leaving Mattie with nothing. After the funeral it became apparent that he had cheated many people in business, and had left his wife and daughter penniless. Mattie's mother died from the news. Mattie was about twenty then , and all she had was $50 from selling her piano, and very few skills that would interest most employers. She had tried to learn "stenography" , accounting, and clerking in a store. All of these tasks apparently made her ill. The relatives that Mattie lived closest to had been cheated by her father. While they had lots of advice for Mattie, they were no willing to help her out financially. They decided that giving her to Zeena would allow them to get their revenge on the father, and give them the feeling of a clean conscience for having done their duty to her. Zeena was happy to get Mattie, because she could criticize Mattie to her hearts content, and Mattie would have to take it. Zeena laid the criticism on thick at first. Her trick was that she did it without making a sound. Ethan wanted Mattie to tell Zeena to stuff it, but was really scared about what might happen if she did. But, summertime took care of the problem somewhat. The warmth helped restore Mattie to health, and since she could do more work, Zeena could spend more time worrying about her illness. Zeena didn't criticize Mattie as much after that. Ethan had a heavy load. Even though he worked all the time, neither the farm, nor the mill did well. At least he could worry a little less about what was going on his home now that Zeena had eased up on Mattie. But now, Ethan fears things have changed for the worse. To try to keep his mind off the fear, Ethan works extra hard. One day he thinks that there might be problems on the home front, and wants to be around if things get ugly. So he goes home and finds Mattie making coffee, and Zeena sitting at the table. Zeena is dressed for travel in a bonnet and brown-wool dress. Her packed luggage is near. When questioned by Ethan, Zeena announces that she is and is headed to Bettsbridge "to see that new doctor" . Zeena had done this a few times before, and these visits to doctors were always extremely expensive, and beyond what Ethan could afford. The doctors always gave her expensive medicines and cures, including some kind of strange twenty-dollar battery that Zeena never figured out how to use. While Zeena explains to Ethan how badly she needs to go to the doctor, Ethan calculates how long she will be gone. He reasons that there is no way she can be back to tonight. Ethan rapidly agrees to let Jotham Powell, the guy who works for him, drive Zeena. Ethan is looking at Mattie while Zeena is talking to him, but manages to tear his eyes away and face his wife. Zeena is only thirty-five to Ethan's twenty-eight, but "she already an old woman" . All Ethan can think about is having a night alone with Mattie, and he wonders if Mattie is thinking what he's thinking. He needs to give Zeena some excuse as to why Jotham is driving her instead of him. Ethan blurts out that he plans to collect some money from Andrew Hale. Andrew owes him money for wood. Hale isn't going to give Ethan any money, and he knows it. But, now Zeena will be counting on that money, and will find a way to spend it before he gets it. Zeena won't be happy to hear that the funds didn't materialize. Not seeming to pay attention to Ethan, Zeena drinks the last of some medicine she has and then tells Mattie that if she can remove the taste of the medicine from the jar, it can be used as a container for pickles.
pinkmonkey
The next morning Ethan goes out to do some hauling. In the clear morning air, he does his clearest thinking. The night before, Zeena had taken her medicine and wrapped her head and lay down facing away from Ethan without a word. Ethan had quickly undressed and blown out the light, so he could not see Zeena, but could listen to Mattie in her room. He watched the small ray of light from her room disappear, and then lay listening to Zeena's labored breathing. He wonders why he did not kiss Mattie, out in the night and snow, when he had a chance. In the bright morning air, Mattie's face is still before him. Then he remembers how she arrived the winter before--thin, colorless, shivering. He was afraid she would not withstand the hard winter, but she never complained. Zeena had pointed out that Mattie had little choice, but Ethan doesn't think so. Mattie's father was Zeena's cousin, a man with high hopes and a Stamford wife whose father had a drug business. Mattie's father took over the father-in- law's business, but never made it a success. At his death, his accounts were left in a mess, and his wife and daughter were poverty-stricken. His wife died shortly thereafter, and Mattie, at age twenty, was left an orphan. Mattie, who had very limited skills, tried bookkeeping, sales, and stenography, but her health broke down. Since her nearest relations had lost their savings by putting their cash into her father's hands, they felt no responsibility toward the daughter. As a result, Mattie came to the Frome farm to help with Zeena and the chores. From the beginning, Zeena found fault with her cousin and often complained. Ethan has hoped and feared that Mattie would one day defy Zeena. Ethan then thinks about the previous night. The scene with Denis Eady and then with Zeena has given him a feeling of foreboding and dread. Although he has planned to drive his team to town with a load of logs, he decides to stay at home. Ethan and Jotham, the hired man, go back to the house. As they enter, Ethan notices that his wife is dressed for town and has her bags packed. Ethan asks her where she going. She matter-of-factly explains that she is going to stay with her aunt in Bettsbridge and see a new doctor. She has done this before, packed off to see a new doctor, and Ethan always dreads the extra expense of the doctor and the expensive remedies. But Ethan is joyous at the prospect of spending a night alone in the house with Mattie and looks at her longingly; he wonders if she is thinking the same thing. When he turns his gaze to Zeena, it strikes him that she is already an old woman, even though she is only thirty-five and seven years older than he. Ethan tells his wife that he cannot drive her, for he must go to Hale's place to collect the cash for some lumber. He immediately regrets his words, because he knows that Zeena will want to spend the money on her illnesses. Zeena makes no reply. She goes to take the medicine she has measured out for herself at the kitchen table, even though she says it doesn't do any good. In the end, Jotham, the hired hand, drives her to the Flats.
Notes Chapter 3 is relatively short and emphasizes Ethan's thought process. He thinks about Mattie constantly, regrets that he did not kiss her the previous evening, engages in fantasy about her, and is overjoyed with the idea of Zeena being away from home for a night. He is sure, given the chance, he could be forever happy with Mattie. The chapter also gives information about Mattie's circumstances. She has come to the Fromes because she has been orphaned and is destitute. She struggles on the farm because she was not raised in the country and does not know how to do manual labor. In spite of her plight, Mattie is a happy and cheerful person. In contrast, Zeena is further developed as a mean-spirited older woman. She is portrayed as conniving, whiny, and unsympathetic to her husband's financial constraints. Her only concern is her own ailments. The chapter introduces a small element of suspense. Since Zeena is going away and Ethan will be alone with Mattie, the reader is made to wonder what will happen between them.
novelguide
The next day, Ethan is out hauling wood and reflecting on the previous night's encounter with Zeena. They had gone to bed in silence and Zeena had taken her medicine. She had turned her face away from him, and he had blown out the light so that he would not see her when he lay down. Ethan thinks back to the warm touch of Mattie's shoulder against his and regrets that he did not kiss her. When she had come to Starkfield, he had expected her to hate the hard life there, but she had never seemed discontented. Zeena had ungenerously put this down to the fact that she had nowhere else to go, but Ethan reflects that Zeena does not apply this principle to herself. Mattie was the daughter of a cousin of Zeena's, Orin Silver, who had inherited from his wife a thriving drug business but had died penniless. His wife had then died of the shock, and the twenty-year-old Mattie was left alone with only fifty dollars. She had few marketable skills, and when she had tried to learn the more lucrative skills of accounting and shorthand, her health had broken down. Her family resented the fact that her father had lost the savings they had invested in his business, and gave her no financial help. When Zeena's doctor had recommended that she get help in the house, the family had pressured Mattie to accept the position. There, Mattie had regained her health, though the atmosphere between Zeena and her was at first strained, with Zeena silently critical of the girl's efforts. As time passed, however, Zeena found she had "more leisure to devote to her complex ailments," and seemed to relax somewhat. But Ethan feels uneasy; he has a sense of foreboding, prompted by Zeena's silence and Mattie's sudden look of warning. He had intended to drive the load of wood to the village for delivery to the builder, Andrew Hale, but then thinks better of it. He decides that if there is going to be trouble between the two women, he should be there, and heads back to the house. He walks in to find Mattie making coffee and Zeena sitting at the table in her best dress, with her luggage next to her. Zeena tells him that she is in such pain that she is going to the nearby town of Bettsbridge to see the new doctor there. Ethan has seen her make similar trips to see new doctors before, and they worry him because they involve his having to pay for a lot of new medicines. But this time, he is relieved, because this trip to the doctor suggests that Zeena's ailments, and not her suspicion that he is having an affair with Mattie, account for her sitting up the previous night. He calculates that Zeena could not return to the farm before the following evening, and grows excited at the prospect of being alone overnight for the first time with Mattie. Zeena asks him if he will let the farm hand, Jotham Powell, drive her to the train station, and Ethan agrees. He says he would drive her himself, but must collect payment for the wood from Andrew Hale. This is a lie, as Ethan knows there is no chance of Hale's paying so soon, but he wants to avoid spending a long journey with his wife. Ethan instantly regrets his words, as his mention of the payment will make Zeena think she can spend money freely.
. Ethan's ability to predict rain correctly, even on "stainless" mornings, tells us that his forebodings about "trouble" between Mattie and Zeena are probably as accurate. The fact that bad weather, when it occurs, is inevitable underscores the inevitability of the storm that faces Ethan and Mattie. There is irony in Ethan's hopeful interpretation of Zeena's vigil as being due to her ailments. The possibility that her waiting up has another explanation - suspicion that her husband is having an affair with Mattie - has already been introduced, and Zeena's devious nature alerts us to the fact that whatever she says or does is likely to have an ulterior motive. The irony builds in Ethan's excited reaction to Zeena's planned trip to the new doctor. He is pleased for two reasons: going away overnight is hardly the action of a suspicious wife; and he will have time alone with Mattie. He has no idea of the tragic events that Zeena's departure will set in motion.