4. What is the chief charm of the account? Would a series of such adventures—with all necessary variation—be altogether as delightful?
IN NOVEMBER
EDITH WYATT was born in Wisconsin, and educated at Chicago and Bryn Mawr. She has for years been a frequent contributor to the best of our American magazines. Her present home is in Chicago.
While listening to Miss Brackett’s naïve recital of her personal narrative, we somehow never lose consciousness of the interesting environment created in the beginning paragraphs. In most stories where the interest in surroundings is strong, we are chiefly concerned with the setting in which the incidents of the plot take place. In this instance, however, we are chiefly interested in the autumnal atmosphere in which Miss Brackett’s ingenuous tale is told. Here is Lake Michigan, all green and mist-blown, banding the whole horizon. There, in the broad southward, lie the full contours of the forest-covered dunes. And over all is the gray and purple sky of the late autumn. In the inner circle of all this is the camp, with Elsie Norris vividly portrayed in the centre. Her isolation is broken by the chance guest, who tells the intimate personal episodes, so charmingly marked by the artless notes of unselfishness. When the guest leaves and the other campers return, and Miss Norris wanders off alone to gather firewood for supper, the brooding influence of the pervading November scene is felt to be even more profound and impressive.
Suggested Points for Study and Comment
1. What are the three or four most graphic touches in the story?
2. What, aside from the setting, is the most impressive element in the story?
3. What comment can you make on Miss Wyatt’s feeling for style? What effects does she produce?
4. Comment on the slight but suggestive glimpse of Baby’s character. What other personages in the story show their sympathy for Miss Brackett?