The Last Runaway

Honor writes to Biddy, admitting that she would attempt to return to Bridport if not for the impossible journey. Though professing her desire to “be fair,” Honor reports Abigail as unwelcoming and Abigail’s house as “chaotic.” She suggests that Biddy will best understand Abigail through her childlike stitching technique and then chastises herself for being unkind. She dislikes how precarious her position seems. Honor describes “tiny, rough” Faithwell, saying that there is no rival to Biddy for Honor’s friendship. She then reminds herself to “stop criticising [her] new country” (103).

On “Sixth Day” (referring to Friday; Quakers did not use names for days of the week or months of the year that derived from pagan nomenclature, instead numbering days and months), after two weeks in Faithwell, Honor accompanies Adam to Oberlin to help in his store. She is relieved to get away from the “increasingly hostile” Abigail. She wears her bonnet from Belle, though she hopes that Judith does not notice it as they ride through Faithwell. She inquires after the regularity of roads and towns, which Adam laughingly frames as an effort to control the vast wilderness of Ohio.

Before they go to the shop, Adam shows Honor around Oberlin. She likes the cultivated neatness of the larger town. She is surprised to see women and Black students at Oberlin College; Adam explains that the school was founded on similar principles of equality to those espoused by the Quakers. Honor finds that the values that Oberlin was founded on are reflected in the wares in Adam’s shop, though she notes that their simplicity may prevent the shop from commercial success. She aids customers and is surprised when several Black women come in to shop. The Black women speak to Adam only; Honor gathers that they do not consider her “safe.”

During a lull, she steps outside for air and is surprised to find a Black-owned confectioner. The Black women who were so reticent in the shop mingle there, talking happily. Honor feels her own lack of community. She is therefore pleased when, later in the afternoon, an older Black woman approaches her to purchase fabric. The woman (later identified as Mrs. Reed) asks about Honor’s bonnet, seeming to recognize Belle’s name. (Honor will eventually understand that Mrs. Reed knows Belle’s name from their mutual work on the Underground Railroad.) Adam approaches before the woman can say more.

Honor writes to her parents, expressing her dismay that the letter she received asked about Grace. She describes her ongoing struggles with Abigail and how she has taken to tending the garden, a chore that Abigail dislikes. She wishes to diminish the percentage of the garden given over to corn, which she finds overabundant in Abigail’s cooking. She battles rabbits and snakes that attempt to damage her crops.

She describes Americans’ pride in their independence from Britain and explains that Oberlinites do not celebrate the Fourth of July as an antislavery protest. Instead, some Faithwell Friends went to listen to abolitionist speeches at Oberlin College, though they packed a robust picnic, as well. A group of Black people also attended the speeches, and Honor found them “not so different from everyone else” (117), something that seems to surprise her. She notes, however, that Black and white children played separately. The speeches confused her, given the different opinions on how abolition should be achieved.

She reports the day to be the first where she feels at home in America, aside from a low moment where she overheard Judith commenting on the inappropriate nature of the Cox household, as Adam lives with two unmarried women to whom he is not related by blood. Even so, Honor cautions her parents not to worry over her.

Belle visits Honor in Faithwell, teasingly complaining that Honor has sent her too many customers for her to keep up with the orders without Honor’s help. Honor attempts to defer to Abigail’s role as woman of the house, but Abigail is so startled by Belle’s forthright manner that Honor needs to remind her to be polite to their guest. Belle and Adam discuss business, making Honor jealous of Belle’s ease in making conversation. Belle reveals that she is technically married, though her husband has long since run off, encouraged by Donovan, as the two men disliked one another.

Belle and Honor take a walk. Belle asks if Donovan has “bothered” Honor since she moved to Faithwell; Honor reports that he has ridden past several times but never stopped. Belle believes that Abigail is jealous of Honor and interested in Adam. Honor repeats Judith’s comments about the oddity of their household. Belle isn’t surprised; even in comparatively lax Wellington, such comments would arise. Belle opines that Honor has two choices: She can return to England or stay in Ohio. To do the latter, she must marry. This causes Honor to think of Jack Haymaker and, more reluctantly, Donovan.

Abigail writes to her friend Biddy, reporting the strange weather in America and a recent fear of a tornado, which never manifested. She reports that Adam and Abigail will be married in 10 days, though the two are awkward about the arrangement. They both avoid Honor, who wishes to remind them of the recency of Grace’s death six weeks prior. She plans to attend a quilting “frolic” to make marriage quilts for Abigail; though Honor looks forward to the event, she wishes that it were not for Abigail’s sake.

She resumes the letter later, writing of the frolic, which took place at the Haymaker farm. They sewed appliqué, a style Honor finds “facile.” The cotton batting inspired conversation about whether it had been picked using enslaved labor. Honor reports the praise she received for her fast, even stitching, though she claims that she “[does] not write this to boast, but rather to point out how displaced [she] often feel[s] here” (132). She calls the American style of complimenting “aggressive.”

The conversation largely bored Honor, as it pertained to local people she doesn’t know. Honor opines that American women are self-centered. She enjoyed the frolic but reports regret at not meeting a potential friend; she feels that the two women close to her in age “both felt threatened by [her] sewing” (134). She apologizes for her “judgements and complaints” and promises to have a better attitude in the next letter (134).