A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32

Chapter 4 includes diary entries from December 12 to December 20, 1830. On December 12, everything reminds Catherine of the self-emancipated man, including the cold weather, but she still doesn’t know the right thing to do. She wishes that he had never come to her town. The next day, she notes that some of the Shipmans’ pies have been stolen. Asa takes the blame and is thrashed, though Catherine suspects the “phantom.” The theft troubles her again, and she thinks, “Again are wrong and right confused” (25).

Asa tells Cassie about the “phantom,” and Catherine knows that Cassie is greatly displeased. She is distressed at having disregarded the wishes of both Father and Cassie, yet she is torn between them and the pleas of Asa and the stranger. In class, Cassie takes the blame when Catherine speaks out, and Catherine is further mortified. Finally Cassie relents and asks for forgiveness, saying that kindness must be the highest of virtues. The next day, Catherine and Cassie take an old quilt, with some sausage and apples wrapped inside, and they leave it near the stranger’s stone with a flash of scarlet fabric showing, which Catherine thinks of as “a bit of warmth” (29).