Chapter 3 Summary

Ethan goes out very early the next morning to cut some wood to sell. Mr. Hale has offered to buy the wood, and Ethan needs the money. He thinks about Mattie and how she seems enthusiastic in her job and content with her lot. He has never heard her complain. He knows that she is in dire circumstances economically and socially. Mattie's late father was a cousin of Zeena's. He married well to a woman from a prominent Connecticut family. Unfortunately, when he died suddenly and when the executors reviewed his business records, the creditors and his family realized that he was a fraud. Mattie's mother died soon thereafter. Mattie was left with a meager amount of money. All assets had been sold to pay creditors, and since then Mattie has lived with a succession of relatives. She has held some short-term jobs...