Ethan Frome

books, built himself a box-sofa out of boards and a mattress, laid out his papers on a kitchen-table, hung on the rough plaster wall an engraving of Abraham Lincoln and a calendar with "Th

live at the farm he had to give her his stove, and consequen

speechless, neither seeking to approach the other. Then the girl had returned to her task of clearing up the kitchen for the night and he had taken his lantern and gone on his usual round outside the house. The kitchen was em

attie had ever written to him, and the possession of the paper gave him a strange new sense of her nearness; yet it deepened his anguish by reminding him that

ide of a bitter querulous woman? Other possibilities had been in him, possibilities sacrificed, one by one, to Zeena's narrow-mindedness and ignorance. And what good had come of it? She was a hundred

rd object with strange protuberances. It was a cushion which Zeena had made for him when they were engaged-the onl

come to visit relatives. They had a little girl with fair curls, who wore a gold locket and was dressed like a princess. The deserted wife had not done badly either. Her husband had given her the farm and she had managed to sell it, and with that and the alimony she had started a lunch-room at Bettsbridge and bl

e-lit the lantern, and sat down at the table. He rummaged in

t blame you, nor I don't blame myself. Maybe both of us will do better separate. I'

nce alone. But with Mattie depending on him the case was different. And what of Zeena's fate? Farm and mill were mortgaged to the limit of their value, and even if she found a purchaser-in itself an unlikely chance-it was doubtful if she could clear a thousand dollars

try it herself? By the time she had discovered his whereabouts, and brought suit for divorce, he would probably-wherever he was-be earnin

he took up his pen his eye fell on an old copy of the Bettsbridge Eagle. The advertising sh

he saw that he had not even the money to take her there. Borrowing was out of the question: six months before he had given his only security to raise funds for necessary repairs to the mill, and he knew that without security no one

imbs so leaden that he felt as if they would never move again. T

rom the mill. Slowly the rim of the rainy vapours caught fire and burnt away, and a pure moon swung into the blue. Ethan, rising on his elbow, watched the landscape whiten and shape itself under the sculpture of the moon. This was the night on which he was to have taken Mattie coa

f being hungry. He rubbed his eyes and went to the window. A red sun stood over the grey rim of the fields, behind trees that l

heard a step behind

ere you here

red scarf wound about her, and the cold light turning her p

she went on, fixing

arer. "How did yo

gain after I went to bed, and I liste

He looked at her and said: "I'll come r

, and the first ray of sunlight lay on the kitchen floor, Ethan's dark thoughts melted in the mellower air. The sight of Mattie going about her work as he had seen her on so many mornings made it seem impossible tha

d his hand on her arm. "I don't want you should trouble e

whispered back: "No, Ethan

'll straighten

ob of her lids, and he went on: "Sh

ven't see

ke any notice

saw Jotham Powell walking up the hill through the morning mist,

say: "Dan'l Byrne's goin' over to the Flats to-day noon, an' he c'd take Matt

he new girl'd be at the Flats at five, and I was to take Mattie t

had to wait a moment before he could find voice t

indifferently; and they

th the scraps left in the pie-dish; then she rose from her seat and, walking over to the window, snipped two or three yellow leaves from the geraniums. "Aunt Martha's ain't g

tating glance at Ethan. "R

too heavy for the sleigh, and Dan'l Byrne'll b

ed to you, Zeen

oice. "I know there's a huckabuck towel missing; and I can't make out what you d

e men were alone Jotham said to his employer:

ouse and barn; then he said to Jotham: "I'm going

st as a helpless spectator at Mattie's banishment. His manhood was humbled by the part he was compelled to play and by the thought of what Mattie must think

road was alive with Mattie's presence, and there was hardly a branch against the sky or a tangle of brambles on the bank in which some bright shred of memory was not caught. Once, in the

ber if he were told that Zeena's ill-health made it necessary to hire a servant. Hale, after all, knew enough of Ethan's situation to make it possible

e could get Mrs. Hale's ear he felt certain of success, and with

erated beat of his thoughts, and as he reached the foot of School House Hill he caught sight of Hale's sleigh in the distance. He hurried forward to meet it, but as it drew nearer he saw that it was driven by the carpenter's

work this forenoon. He woke up with a touch o' lumbago, and I just made hi

's feeling so bad again! I hope he thinks he can do something for her. I don't know anybody round here's had more sickness than Zeena. I always tell Mr. Hale I don't

to the horse; and Ethan, as she drove off, stood in the

it natural that a young fellow of his age should have carried without repining the burden of three crippled lives. But Mrs. Hale had said, "You've ha

, in the light of the words he had just heard, he saw what he was about to do. He was planning to take advantage of the Hales' sympathy to

him as it was. He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone and destitute; and

alked slowly ba