Chapter 1 Summary

It's planting season (April) in southern Illinois, 1861. Nine-year old Jethro Creighton is in the field with his mother Ellen, planting potatoes while his brothers Bill, Tom and John work alongside their father, Matt and cousin, Eb, who are plowing other fields. Ellen Creighton is a small but seasoned woman strengthened through years of farm life, birthing twelve children, losing four to death, and the oldest has gone to search for gold in California. With the possibility of impending war, thoughts and conversation between the two parents reconstruct the family's history of the family, and set forth their present state of mind and divergent hopes and concerns for the future. As a young boy, Jethro is earnestly looking forward to the onset of war while his mother considers the pain and consequences.

Considered one of the family, schoolmaster Shadrach Yale stops by on his...