Summary
Arriving back home, where a sleigh has come to take away
Mattie’s trunk, Ethan enters the kitchen to find Zeena reading a
book of medical advice. When he asks about Mattie, Zeena tells him
that she is upstairs packing. Ethan climbs the stairs and enters
her room, finding Mattie sitting on her trunk in the middle of the
emptied room, sobbing. She confesses her fear that she will never
see him again. He reassures her, pulling her close to him and placing
his lips on her hair. They are interrupted by Zeena, who calls for
the trunk to be hurried down. Ethan carries it downstairs to the
sleigh, and as he and Mattie watch the horse and rider depart, Ethan
resolves that he, not Powell, will drive Mattie to the train.
At dinner, Ethan is unable to touch his food, while Zeena
eats heartily. After the meal, Powell asks what time he should return
to deliver Mattie. Ethan explains that he won’t need to come to
the farm at all, as Ethan himself will be delivering Mattie to the
station. This sudden change of plans does not sit well with Zeena,
who tells Ethan that he needs to attend to the stove in the spare
bedroom. A bitter exchange ensues, and Ethan firmly insists on taking
Mattie in spite of Zeena’s protests.
Filled with nostalgia and regret, Ethan prepares his horse
for the journey. Returning to the house, he finds the kitchen empty;
he eventually locates Mattie in his old study, where she explains
that she had wanted to take one last look around. Zeena has retired
to her bedroom after dinner without a single word of goodbye to
Mattie. After casting one last glance around the kitchen, Mattie
is ready to join Ethan, entering the sleigh and starting down the
hill.
Ethan decides to take Mattie the long way around, along
Shadow Pond, in order to relive a handful of memories. Ethan stops
the sleigh in a pine wood and helps Mattie down. As they walk together through
the wintry landscape, they remember their encounter of the previous
summer at a church picnic on this very spot, where Ethan found a
lost gold locket of Mattie’s. Lingering in the glow of their reminiscence,
Ethan longs to reach out to Mattie and declare his affections openly,
but she rises to go before he can make his move.
They drive on under a setting sun, and Ethan asks Mattie
about her plans for the future. She outlines a vague notion of finding
work in a store. Ethan declares his devotion to her, and she responds
by showing him his aborted letter of goodbye to Zeena, which he
had left in his study and which Mattie had then found. Ethan is
exhilarated by her discovery and asks if she has the same feelings
for him that he does for her. In despair, she dismisses his question
as useless, tearing up the note and casting the fragments into the
snow. However, moments later, she quietly confesses her own love
for him.
Ethan explains the impossibility of his situation, and
Mattie insists that he write to her. Worried that she will eventually
marry, Ethan asserts that he would almost sooner see her dead, and
Mattie tearfully agrees with his sentiment. As they drive, they
come across a group of boys with sleds, which reminds them of their
long-harbored plan to go sledding. Suddenly, Ethan proposes that
they embark on their sledding adventure right away, reassuring Mattie that
the hired girl can wait for them at the station. Sighting a sled beneath
the Varnum spruces, they make their way over to it and climb aboard.
