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Prologue
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- In the frame story, the Narrator, an engineer, sees Ethan at the Starkfield post office. Harmon Gow tells him that Ethan was crippled in a “smash-up” 24 years earlier.
- Hoping to learn more, the Narrator asks his landlady, Mrs. Ned Hale, about the accident. She’s reluctant to talk.
- The Narrator hires Ethan to drive him to and from the train station every day. A winter storm forces him to stay overnight at the Frome farm, where the Narrator discovers a clue that unlocks the Frome story.
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1
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- The main narrative, imagined by the Narrator, begins.
- Young Ethan walks through the snow to the church, where he sees Mattie, wearing a red scarf, dancing with Denis Eady.
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2
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- Mattie refuses Denis’s offer of a ride home, delighting Ethan, who is eavesdropping.
- As Mattie and Ethan walk back to the farm, they pass by a steep hill used for sledding and the Frome graveyard.
- Instead of leaving the key under the mat, Zeena greets them at the farmhouse door.
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3
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- Zeena informs Ethan that she is going to Bettsbridge to see a new doctor, leaving him alone with Mattie.
- Ethan lies that he can’t drive Zeena to the train station because he is collecting payment for a delivery of lumber to Andrew Hale.
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4
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- To avoid being caught in a lie, Ethan goes to Andrew Hale and asks him for an advance. Hale politely refuses.
- Ethan sees Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum kissing by the Varnum gate.
- Ethan and Mattie eat supper and the cat knocks over Zeena’s pickle-dish. Ethan says he will glue it together the next day so that Zeena won’t see that it’s broken.
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5
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- After supper, Ethan and Mattie sit by the stove and talk. The cat behaves strangely, reminding them of Zeena.
- Ethan touches the end of the fabric Mattie is sewing, then kisses it.
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6
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- Bad weather prevents Ethan from getting the glue in time to fix the pickle-dish before Zeena returns from Bettsbridge.
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7
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- Zeena tells Ethan she is very ill and that the doctor has ordered her to hire a girl to help her with the housework.
- Ethan tells her he can’t afford it, and his lie about getting money from Hale is discovered.
- Zeena says the hired girl is arriving the next day and that, since they don’t have the money, Mattie will have to leave.
- Zeena discovers the broken pickle-dish.
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8
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- Ethan begins writing a letter to Zeena telling her he is leaving to go west with Mattie, but changes his mind when he realizes he doesn’t have enough money and considers what society will think of him for abandoning his wife.
- Learning that Zeena has made arrangements for Mattie’s departure, Ethan decides to ask Andrew Hale for money with the lie that he needs it to pay the hired girl.
- Ethan encounters Mrs. Andrew Hale, whose sympathy discourages him from going through with his plan.
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9
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- Ethan tells Zeena that he, not Jotham Powell, will drive Mattie to the train station.
- On the way to the station, Ethan and Mattie stop to reminisce at Shadow Pond.
- They stop also at the sledding hill. Mattie kisses Ethan, and they sled down the hill without incident.
- In despair, Mattie asks Ethan to take them on another sled run, but to steer the sled into the big elm tree.
- Ethan agrees, but is distracted by his chores at the farm and a vision of Zeena’s face. The sled goes slightly off course. They hit the tree, but the impact cripples rather than kills them.
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Epilogue
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- The frame story resumes. Ethan introduces the Narrator to Zeena and Mattie, now paralyzed, in the farmhouse kitchen. Suffering has turned Mattie into an exact copy of Zeena.
- Mrs. Ned Hale confirms the Narrator’s story.
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