Chapter I: Front Matter

THE

PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND

A Story of the Coast of Maine

BY

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

The Riverside Press, Cambridge

1896

Copyright, 1862 and 1890,

BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

Copyright, 1896,

BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.

_All rights reserved._

_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._

Electrotyped and Printed by H.O. Houghton & Co.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY NOTE vii

CHAP. PAGE

I. NAOMI 1

II. MARA 5

III. THE BAPTISM AND THE BURIAL 9

IV. AUNT ROXY AND AUNT RUEY 15

V. THE KITTRIDGES 25

VI. GRANDPARENTS 36

VII. FROM THE SEA 47

VIII. THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN 58

IX. MOSES 74

X. THE MINISTER 85

XI. LITTLE ADVENTURERS 99

XII. SEA TALES 110

XIII. BOY AND GIRL 120

XIV. THE ENCHANTED ISLAND 132

XV. THE HOME COMING 143

XVI. THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL 154

XVII. LESSONS 165

XVIII. SALLY 175

XIX. EIGHTEEN 179

XX. REBELLION 186

XXI. THE TEMPTER 198

XXII. A FRIEND IN NEED 208

XXIII. THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY 218

XXIV. DESIRES AND DREAMS 229

XXV. MISS EMILY 235

XXVI. DOLORES 245

XXVII. HIDDEN THINGS 258

XXVIII. A COQUETTE 270

XXIX. NIGHT TALKS 279

XXX. THE LAUNCH OF THE ARIEL 290

XXXI. GREEK MEETS GREEK 303

XXXII. THE BETROTHAL 315

XXXIII. AT A QUILTING 323

XXXIV. FRIENDS 329

XXXV. THE TOOTHACRE COTTAGE 335

XXXVI. THE SHADOW OF DEATH 339

XXXVII. THE VICTORY 351

XXXVIII. OPEN VISION 358

XXXIX. THE LAND OF BEULAH 368

XL. THE MEETING 376

XLI. CONSOLATION 380

XLII. LAST WORDS 387

XLIII. THE PEARL 393

XLIV. FOUR YEARS AFTER 398

The frontispiece (Mara, page 376) was drawn by W.L. Taylor. The vignette was etched by Charles H. Woodbury.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The publication of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, though much more than an incident in an author's career, seems to have determined Mrs. Stowe more surely in her purpose to devote herself to literature. During the summer following its appearance, she was in Andover, making over the house which she and her husband were to occupy upon leaving Brunswick; and yet, busy as she was, she was writing articles for _The Independent_ and _The National Era_. The following extract from a letter written at that time, July 29, 1852, intimates that she already was sketching the outline of the story which later grew into _The Pearl of Orr's Island_:--

"I seem to have so much to fill my time, and yet there is my Maine story waiting. However, I am composing it every day, only I greatly need living studies for the filling in of my sketches. There is old Jonas, my "fish father," a sturdy, independent fisherman farmer, who in his youth sailed all over the world and made up his mind about everything. In his old age he attends prayer-meetings and reads the _Missionary Herald_. He also has plenty of money in an old brown sea-chest. He is a great heart with an inflexible will and iron muscles. I must go to Orr's Island and see him again." The story seems to have remained in her mind, for we are told by her son that she worked upon it by turns with _The Minister's Wooing_.

It was not, however, until eight years later, after _The Minister's Wooing_ had been published and _Agnes of Sorrento_ was well begun, that she took up her old story in earnest and set about making it into a short serial. It would seem that her first intention was to confine herself to a sketch of the childhood of her chief characters, with a view to delineating the influences at work upon them; but, as she herself expressed it, "Out of the simple history of the little Pearl of Orr's Island as it had shaped itself in her mind, rose up a Captain Kittridge with his garrulous yarns, and Misses Roxy and Ruey, given to talk, and a whole pigeon roost of yet undreamed of fancies and dreams which would insist on being written." So it came about that the story as originally planned came to a stopping place at the end of Chapter XVII., as the reader may see when he reaches that place. The childish life of her characters ended there, and a lapse of ten years was assumed before their story was taken up again in the next chapter. The book when published had no chapter headings. These have been supplied in the present edition.

THE PEARL OF ORR'S ISLAND