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Part 1, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5

• The first chapter describes the Salinas Valley in California, where a majority of this book takes place.

• Samuel Hamilton moves there with his wife, Liz. Their home has poor soil, but Samuel is an honest woodworker and blacksmith.
• Adam Trask gets a large ranch in the area with fertile soil. He grew up on a ranch in Connecticut.

• His father, Cyrus, lost his leg in the Civil War. His wife catches a venereal disease, and drowns herself.
• Cyrus remarries a woman named Alice, who has a son named Charles. She raises Adam as her own. Adam is kind, Charles aggressive.

• Adam joins the Army. Cyrus says he loves Adam more than Charles. Charles knows this and is jealous.
• Every year on the Hamilton ranch welcomes a new child, each different but all kind and good like their parents.

• Olive, a Hamilton daughter, is the narrator's...

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