The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz

Author:Jean Fritz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group

Ann smiled and picked up a stick to make corrections. She wrote:GETTYSBURG IS VERY ELEGANT

All the time that Andy was learning, he seemed to be changing in other ways, too. Ann noticed that he seemed to walk straighter. He didn’t hang his head so much and he wasn’t forever looking for a fight.

The summer days drifted away. The blackberries ripened beside the road and the corn in Mr. Hamilton’s field reached up to Daniel’s shoulders.

Then one day Arthur Scott came back. It was evening. Ann and Andy were sitting on the steps and Ann was reciting the rule about “i before e except after c” when there was the sound of hoofbeats and Arthur Scott was riding up to the cabin. Ann dropped the stick she was using and ran to meet him.

As Mr. Scott swung down from his saddle, he found himself surrounded by Hamiltons who had heard him and come from all directions. David came out of the barn and held out his hand.

“Welcome, neighbor,” he grinned. “You must be a full-fledged land owner now, and that makes you a neighbor even if you are on the other side of the county. Guess we’ll have to get up early in the morning when we take Sunday dinner with you.”

Everyone was laughing and talking and it was a few minutes before Ann noticed that Andy McPhale had disappeared. She shrugged her shoulders. If he was going to be so silly, she wasn’t going to waste time thinking about it.

There was such a little time to be with Arthur Scott anyway. He was leaving the next morning. All the Hamiltons seemed to be aware of the short time left with their good friend and of the long, lonely winter ahead. That evening there was more gaiety on the hill than there had ever been. The laughter and jokes and stories stretched out long after candlelighting, long after they would normally be in bed.

The next morning Arthur Scott was gone. Just before he left, he leaned down from his horse and whispered to Ann. “Don’t let that fire go out,” he said, “before I come back next spring.” Then he urged his horse forward and in a moment all that could be seen of Arthur Scott was a shadow of dust on the long, long road East.

That day was an empty day and a long one at Hamilton Hill. The sun seemed unusually warm, the chores especially tiresome. Ann had the sensation that the hill was an island floating farther and farther away from the rest of the world. Even the road had no magic to it that day.

Ann didn’t bother to go to the road in the evening when she took down her diary. She sat on the doorstep, thinking that Andy might come along for a lesson. While she waited, she thought about Arthur Scott and tried to remember everything that had happened since she had met him on the road. She thought of that first dinner and his stories about Valley Forge.

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