Oldham

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. In a quiet New England parish, a modest red schoolhouse and a neglected country church become stages for a story of faith, hardship, gossip, and grace. Miss Armstrong, calm and warm-hearted, quickly notices Kit Mallory, a wary, foundling-like child whose refusal to say the Lord's Prayer exposes her outsider status and the harsh judgments of a close-knit town. As rumors about Kit's poorhouse origins and irreligious family spread, Miss Armstrong sees beneath her roughness to the child's intelligence, tenderness, and hidden loneliness. A walk across the hills leads Kit to a beloved hidden hollow, where beauty and trust open the way for honest talk about the Bible, prayer, and revenge. Miss Armstrong explains Christ's sacrifice in simple, loving terms, awakening Kit's curiosity and hinting at a buried past she scarcely remembers. Meanwhile, tea-table gossip about the Mallorys, the Van Zandts, and old neighborhood prejudices reveals a community divided by class pride and narrow-mindedness. At church, vanity and seriousness collide. A powerful sermon on death and judgment stirs true conviction in some, especially Selina and Agnes, while others cling to status and appearances. The aftermath brings more social maneuvering, but also quiet acts of mercy: Agnes chooses care over self-interest, tending the sick, comforting the unhappy, and embodying the novel's call to Christian devotion, self-denial, and compassionate service.