Sarah Orne Jewett

The teacher's desk was covered with Mayflowers, and the primer class presented a straggling front. The boys and girls were sitting straight and silent in their places. The elderly gentleman sat...

Mr. Jefferson Briley was driving the passenger and mail transportation between North Kilby and Sanscrit Pond when he met Mrs. Fanny Tobin. The affronted driver remarked that he didn't see why folks...

Three friends met at Barton's store at the Plains, and discussed Eb Munson's disapp'intment with Marthy Peck. Asa Brown decided there wasn't no public sperit in Barlow. Martin Tighe an' John Tighe...

One elderly passenger was thrown off her feet when the train stopped at a way station and moved on. I've broken up with my companion and am moving to Shrewsbury. It's hard to leave home, but we are...

In giving this brief account of my childhood, I thought back to those who taught me to observe. I was born in a pleasant old colonial house built near 1750, and grew up hearing stories of three...

Three old women sat together near an open window in the shed chamber of Byfleet Poor-house. One was suspicious of the young widow with seven children. Betsey Lane started to sing a hymn, and the...

Farley's mills were close together by the river and the English sparrows squabbled over them in eaves-corners. The Corporation had followed the usual fortunes of New England manufacturing...

Mrs. Mercy Crane was a peculiar person who invented a system of signals. She sat in her doorway dressed in a favorite old-fashioned light calico. Sarah Ellen Dow came from the house of mourning,...

Mrs. Trimble regretted her husband's loss deeply. The Bray girls live there. The two friends came in sight of a weather-beaten, solitary farmhouse, and were welcomed with open arms by the elder...

A New Englander speaks about the weather, and how elderly people distrust the deep woods. On a long woodland way, every old farmhouse has at least one tall bush of white roses by the door. We drove...