Deephaven

Deephaven and Selected Stories
& Sketches
by Sarah Orne
Jewett

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Sketches
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Title: Deephaven and Selected Stories & Sketches
Author: Sarah Orne Jewett
Release Date: June 4, 2005 [EBook #15985]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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DEEPHAVEN
and
SELECTED STORIES AND SKETCHES
by
SARAH ORNE JEWETT

Contents
DEEPHAVEN (1877)
SELECTED STORIES AND SKETCHES
AN AUTUMN HOLIDAY (1881)
FROM A MOURNFUL VILLAGER (1881)
AN OCTOBER RIDE (1881)
TOM'S HUSBAND (1884)
MISS DEBBY'S NEIGHBORS (1884)

DEEPHAVEN

Preface
This book is not wholly new, several of the chapters having already
been published in the "Atlantic Monthly." It has so often been asked if
Deephaven may not be found on the map of New England under
another name, that, to prevent any misunderstanding, I wish to say,
while there is a likeness to be traced, few of the sketches are drawn

from that town itself, and the characters will in almost every case be
looked for there in vain.
I dedicate this story of out-of-door life and country people first to my
father and mother, my two best friends, and also to all my other friends,
whose names I say to myself lovingly, though I do not write them here.
S. O. J.

Contents
KATE LANCASTER'S PLAN
THE BRANDON HOUSE AND THE LIGHTHOUSE
MY LADY BRANDON
DEEPHAVEN SOCIETY
THE CAPTAINS
DANNY
CAPTAIN SANDS
THE CIRCUS AT DENBY
CUNNER-FISHING
MRS. BONNY
IN SHADOW
MISS CHAUNCEY
LAST DAYS IN DEEPHAVEN

Kate Lancaster's Plan
I had been spending the winter in Boston, and Kate Lancaster and I had
been together a great deal, for we are the best of friends. It happened
that the morning when this story begins I had waked up feeling sorry,
and as if something dreadful were going to happen. There did not seem
to be any good reason for it, so I undertook to discourage myself more
by thinking that it would soon be time to leave town, and how much I
should miss being with Kate and my other friends. My mind was still
disquieted when I went down to breakfast; but beside my plate I found,
with a hoped-for letter from my father, a note from Kate. To this day I
have never known any explanation of that depression of my spirits, and
I hope that the good luck which followed will help some reader to lose
fear, and to smile at such shadows if any chance to come.
Kate had evidently written to me in an excited state of mind, for her
note was not so trig-looking as usual; but this is what she said:--
Dear Helen,--I have a plan--I think it a most delightful plan--in which
you and I are chief characters. Promise that you will say yes; if you do
not you will have to remember all your life that you broke a girl's heart.
Come round early, and lunch with me and dine with me. I'm to be all
alone, and it's a long story and will need a great deal of talking over.
K.
I showed this note to my aunt, and soon went round, very much
interested. My latch-key opened the Lancasters' door, and I hurried to
the parlor, where I heard my friend practising with great diligence. I
went up to her, and she turned her head and kissed me solemnly. You
need not smile; we are not sentimental girls, and are both much averse
to indiscriminate kissing, though I have not the adroit habit of shying in
which Kate is proficient. It would sometimes be impolite in any one
else, but she shies so affectionately.
"Won't you sit down, dear?" she said, with great ceremony, and went
on with her playing, which was abominable that morning; her fingers
stepped on each other, and, whatever the tune might have been in

reality, it certainly had a most remarkable incoherence as I heard it then.
I took up the new Littell and made believe read it, and finally threw it
at Kate; you would have thought we were two children.
"Have you heard that my grand-aunt, Miss Katharine Brandon of
Deephaven, is dead?" I knew that she had died in November, at least
six months before.
"Don't be nonsensical, Kate!" said I. "What is it you are going to tell
me?"
"My grand-aunt died very old, and was the last of