Camp Hain

013 Exploring 1830s New England Life: A Gathering of Days Chapters 7-12 Summary

• Tia Hain • Season 1 • Episode 13

Share episode

Exploring Catherine Hall's Journey: Chapters 7-12 of The Gathering of Days

In this episode, Tia Hain examines chapters 7 through 12 of 'The Gathering of Days,' delving into Catherine Hall's experiences in 1830s New England. Catherine’s encounters reveal her friendships, growing sense of justice, and various life challenges. Significant events include dealing with newspapers discussing slavery, familial changes with new step-family members, daily tasks, and navigating community controversies. The episode also touches on Catherine’s personal growth, aspiration to teach, and the complexities of integrating new family dynamics. Tia provides insights and parallels to both historical and present-day contexts.

012 Journey Through History A Gathering of Days Summary - Chapters 1 - 6 - https://youtu.be/q57HaMn4m_g

Internet Grandpa reading A Gathering of Days - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZCA-2dXdcM&list=PLLg_HRKca7SKUw8PXt91C470c-BqqO5GI&index=1&t=0s

00:00 Introduction to Catherine Hall's World
00:30 Welcome to Camp Hain
01:10 Recap and Dive into Chapters 7-12
01:27 Chapter 7: New Lessons and Challenges
04:51 Chapter 8: Teacher Holt's Controversy
07:50 Chapter 9: Sugaring Season and Community Tales
10:52 Chapter 10: Changes and New Beginnings
14:11 Chapter 11: Preparing for a New Family Member
16:58 Chapter 12: Adjusting to Stepmother and New Dynamics
22:32 Conclusion and Call to Action

013 A Gathering of Day Chapters 7-12 Summary

Tia: [00:00:00] Imagine stepping into the past where every thought, every struggle, and every triumph is carefully inked into the pages of a young girl's journal. In chapters 7 through 12 of The Gathering of Days, we dive deeper into Catherine Hall's world, her friendships, her growing sense of justice, and the challenges of life in 1830s New England.

From secret decisions to unexpected new family members, these chapters shape Catherine in ways she never imagined. So, what lessons does she learn, and what choices will define her? Let's turn the page and find out.

Welcome to Camp Hain, the adventures of a Catholic family that homeschools, public schools, online schools, and has one super obsessed with baseball kid. Currently, I, Tia Hain, am a Classical Conversations Challenge A Director. A lot of this podcast is related to that for now. I upload a new podcast every Friday, other videos on YouTube as well, and I also post videos about math, mostly algebra, because that's what I'm tutoring right now, and our life.

We love our adventures, so come along for the ride, [00:01:00] and click subscribe or follow if you are a homeschooler or are thinking about homeschooling, or even if this content just interests you. I've said the things, now let's move on into the content.

Welcome back. We are with Catherine Hall again with A Gathering of Days, and we are doing chapter seven through twelve in this episode. If you would like chapters one through six, the summary of those, I will link it in the show notes. So let's just dive in, shall we?

Chapter seven. Monday, January 24th, Teacher Holt is reading from a newspaper again, the Colombian Sentinel. His friend sent it from Boston. It talks about how the population of New Hampshire is 269,533. It also states other facts of the New Hampshire state. One of the facts that it says is the number of blind people is 117.

Catherine and Cassie walk home with their eyes closed to get a feel, but they also know that they can open their eyes anytime they want. It also [00:02:00] stated that the US population is 13 million

Thursday, February 10th. Catherine hasn't written due to being sick. Also, she didn't go to school during that time, but she did work on her penmanship and spelling at home, and Cassie stopped by.

Today Matty is eight years old. Catherine wishes her mother could see her. Matty doesn't remember her mother much. She also doesn't remember the baby, Nathaniel. Father was so happy about having a baby boy, but soon after Nathaniel's birth, both he and their mother got sick and died.

Then it's Thursday, February 17th. Teacher Holt has brought in another newspaper. This one, his friend, started in Boston called The Liberator. It concerns with "the slavery question." The motto of the newspaper is "Our country is the world, our countrymen, all mankind." Teacher Holt, has them copy the motto in their books.

He also reads a poem from the paper. And the poem talks [00:03:00] about how the person would rather be enslaved than knowingly allow cruel chains to deprive another. And this makes Catherine think of Asa and the pies.

Next we have Friday, February 18th, they're walking home from school, and Catherine wanted to express her admiration to Asa, but found herself too shy to do it.

And then when she gets home, she finds that father has laid cloth that he has woven from yarn that Catherine has spun last summer. This and his other work has kept him from the chair that he was working on, but he is planning on making a candle stand to go with the chair.

Now it's Sunday, February 20th. Some in the community are upset about Teacher Holt reading newspapers. Catherine finds out that others knew about the footprints of the phantom and suspect Teacher Holt, of helping the phantom.

Next entry is Tuesday, February 22nd, says Uncle Jack visits. Him and Father talk about the rumors. Both against slave holding, but they differ on where the freed slaves [00:04:00] should be.

Then it's Wednesday, February 23rd, Teacher Holt brings in the newspaper again, and in this newspaper is a reprint of an advertisement from a Southern paper for a 17-year-old black girl. Catherine is looking at it from a different point of view since she is so close to the age of this girl.

Then at the very end of this chapter is a copy of the letter Teacher Holt submitted to the district meeting, and in this letter he states there are two issues. The first issue is he knows he's being accused of assisting an escaped slave, and the second issue is infringing upon the pupil's education by introducing texts other than school books during school hours.

Then he states for the first issue, he has not done it. But for the second issue, he is guilty and he did it in good faith and won't do it again if they let him stay.

Chapter eight. It is Saturday, February 26th. Teacher Holt has been lodging at the M-s. That is the only way their name is written is just an [00:05:00] M. They were the first and the loudest condemning him and demand that he leave. The Shipmans, her friend Cassie's family, offered to take him, but they want the compensation.

They get compensation for lodging the teacher for the town. And so the Shipmans want compensation for doing the lodging. Now, the M-s say they didn't default, so they should keep all the money for lodging him. Then father makes a comment about caring more for cash than for scruples.

Then it's Sunday, February 27th. Teacher Holt sat with the Shipmans at the services that day.

Father says he's going to make a second chair instead of the candle stand.

Tuesday, March 1st, a delegation went to the Shipman's house. Teacher Holt will only teach from what the town approves. The M-s and the Shipmans will each get half of the lodging payment due. Technically, the Shipmans are short, so Teacher Holt says he will be helping with the plowing and planting when the time comes.

The sun [00:06:00] is warming things. And Cassie saw two robins, which I find interesting 'cause that is what we are going through in our town right now. We just had a bunch of snow and then over the last three days it has all melted and we are being swarmed with robins. It's kind of neat, but it's also a little weird at the same time.

Okay, now it's Wednesday, March 9th. Catherine writes a little poem about spring.

And then it's Friday, March 11th. Joshua Nelson got lashed for sleeping in class, but he acted like he didn't care. Catherine and Cassie talk about becoming teachers. Women can only do it in the summer here.

Catherine's mother was also a teacher and it was how she met Catherine's father. His farm was next to where she was lodged and she preferred his company to where she was staying.

Then at Saturday, March 12th, Father's finished the chair and he set it in the northeast window. Matty begged to be the first to sit in it. [00:07:00] Yesterday after school was dismissed. Teacher Holt read from the newspapers to a bunch of the boys, but it is not during school hours.

It's Thursday, March 17th, sap is running, so they prepare the buckets.

Friday, March 18th, Catherine is 14 today. Father talks about the day she was born. There had been 19 inches of snow the two days before and it melted. So there was flooding on River Street that day. They called the room, the borning room where Catherine was born. They've always been calling it the borning room, even though Catherine's mother also died in that same room.

Saturday, March 19th. The men went into the woods to tap the trees and hang the buckets. All the children except the youngest Shipman help. So basically they're tapping the trees to get the sap to make maple syrup and maple sugar.

Chapter nine, Monday, March 21st. Almost no children are at school because all are needed to feed the sap fires [00:08:00] and stir the kettles to hopefully make maple syrup. Father stays overnight to keep the fires going.

Tuesday, March 22nd. Father says a lot of people helped. Sophy's father was there and played the fiddle. Food for everyone there was the syrup. You take a little bit out of the pot and put it into the clean snow. The sudden chilling turns it into sugar. Joshua Nelson's mother had an accident with a cow horn going through her cheek, but she is on the mend.

Then it's Thursday, March 24th. Father compares the seasons to the seasons of men's lives, fits and starts.

Then he talks of Catherine being a woman while still being a child.

Friday, March 25th. " Let thy speech be better than silence or be silent." Dionysus the Elder. And Mrs. Shipman's recipe for mince meat. That was the entire journal entry.

Sunday, March 27th. Sugaring of the syrup was stopped by inconsistent weather.

[00:09:00] And then there's a story that she says is the talk of the town. So on Tuesday, an elegant coach appeared and inside was a gentleman in foreign clothes asking for Mr. Jeremy Preston, and he spoke perfect English.

Now Jeremy Preston is Sophy's grandpa's brother. Years ago, Reverend Williams bound out his youngest son to Mr Preston. He stayed out late one night with girls, so he got whipped the next day. He ran away taking $300 from Mr. Preston with him. He worked on a Russian ship. That ship was attacked by pirates. And so the boy became a hero. He met the Czar and eventually became an admiral in the Russian Navy. And he was made a nobleman. 

But his early transgression always bothered him, so when he was in Boston on business, he came to Meredith and repaid the $300, and then some for the interest it would have made [00:10:00] in a bank. And then the town called him the Count of Meredith.

Now it's Monday, March 28th. Teacher Holt kissed Aunt Lucy while sitting around the campfire at the sugaring off.

Wednesday, March 30th. Catherine won the spelling today over Joshua Nelson, but she thinks he might have lost on purpose.

And now it's April Fool's Day. Matty and Catherine played a trick on their father. They made a whole turnip look like a candle and replaced his normal morning candle with it. And they were spying on him in the morning to see what would happen, and he was very frustrated until he figured it out.

Then Catherine and Matty couldn't help but laugh. 

And then it's Monday, April 4th. Matty put on one of her dresses and it was too small. Father will get material for new dresses when he goes to Boston. Catherine would really love a blue dress.

Chapter 10, Tuesday, April 5th. Catherine is going over the stored food choices. Mostly apples are gone [00:11:00] and most of the cabbage is gone, but the parsnips are at their best and they use them often.

Thursday, April 7th, Asa asked for help from Catherine and writing a verse for Sophy. He wants it for the last day of school. This is what they came up with.

Random are the gestures, with which you've won my heart. Yet for the days to come, may we never part.

Then Sophy's mother gives Catherine a very basic cake recipe.

Wednesday, April 13th. It's the last day of school. Joshua gave Catherine forget-me-nots and attached is a ribbon and a note that says, I pray you will accompany me.

The book never explains what this means. Accompany to what? We have no idea. It's never mentioned again.

Asa gave Sophy the note and a lock of hair. I guess that's what they did back then and everybody took their time walking home.

Thursday, April 14th. Mrs. Shipman doesn't like not accomplishing something during the day, so she has Catherine, Matty, and Cassie each take an outgrown [00:12:00] item of clothing. Let it down and re-sew the hem. Catherine's back is aching at the end of the day from hunching over

Sunday, April 16th. Father leaves for Boston in two days. They're preparing for the trip. They have first to trade maple sugar and straw broom also to trade. So they pack everything up and he's going to get next season supplies. Father prefers Boston to Concord. He should be gone about a week. Catherine and Matty will stay home and Mr. Shipman will come and help out.

Monday, April 18th. Father left before light. Catherine packed cheese, the last of the apples, and some journey cake for him. Matty and Catherine waved him off until they could no longer see his lantern.

Catherine took two baskets of clothes over to the Shipmans to wash. She washed them with Cassie and they talked and talked about Teacher Holt and Aunt Lucy.

Then it's the Sabbath. April 24th. The week took forever. Went to both services with the [00:13:00] Shipmans

Now it's Monday, April 25th and father is not home.

It's Tuesday, April 26th, and Catherine made Mrs. Shipman's mince meat pie recipe. She cut it in half, but father is still not home, so they are saving it.

Then it is Thursday, April 28th. Father is finally home and he's going to marry someone. She's a widow and has a son Catherine's age. Her name is Mistress Ann Higham, and she sent a note for Catherine along with a bonnet. The bonnet is blue to match her eyes.

Now it is Saturday, April 30th. Mrs. Shipman is overjoyed to have a neighbor woman. Father, tells the story over and over again, went in the shop to buy me some goods and found instead a wife.

Her son's name is Daniel. And his father died two weeks before he was born. Mistress Higham boarded with her brother and she helps out in his shop. Her labor pays for her lodgings and she has been there [00:14:00] for 12 to 13 years.

The next entry is Monday, May 2nd. Father got a letter today. He will marry in Boston at the end of the month.

Now we're on to chapter 11. It is Friday May 6th. A peddler came by. He was Jewish. She offered him food and cider, and he just took the cider. Catherine bought needles, buttons, sewing silk and scissors. Some of the scissors cost 12 cents and some cost twice as much. So Catherine asked what the difference was.

And the peddler said that she had a very good eye 'cause he said they're actually the same. But at first people thought his prices were too low so that his scissors must be cheap. So he doubled the price on some of them, and people buy them because they just assume that they are better.

Saturday, May 7th. Told Asa about the peddler and he is sorry he missed him.

Monday, May 9th. Another letter from the soon to be wife. She has lovely penmanship.

Tuesday, May 10th. Had a new pine dresser [00:15:00] installed. Catherine realized that this is the last of the house being just theirs.

Then Friday, May 13th just says Cold rain with gray skies.

Saturday, May 14th. Father had a new jacket made. It is gray.

Tuesday, May 17th. A letter came from her yesterday. She has many, many questions.

Wednesday, May 18th. Father left. This morning he drove the Shipman's team again. The wagon was washed and the seat recovered. He also brought brooms with him to trade and he took some more maple sugar to trade. Father gave them each a kiss and left.

Sunday, May 22nd. They got married this day in Boston. Catherine says she will not call her mother.

Thursday, May 26th. She is smaller than Mrs. Shipman and plainer than Aunt Lucy. Daniel is also plain, but he is tall and he has a sprinkling of freckles. Yes, sir. No sir. Thank you, sir. Was all he said.

And then the entry just says later. So it's later [00:16:00] on May 26th. Daniel will go up with Matty and Catherine when going to bed. He'll use the farther quarter toward the west side. There was a new straw mattress, a roped bed frame, and a box for his possessions. Father will drive some pegs for the clothes, so he'll put some pegs in the walls so Daniel can hang up his clothes and Matty just stares at him.

Friday, May 27th. The Shipmans called today. They brought a pudding. Mrs. Shipman was awkward, and Catherine thought that maybe she feared the Boston woman's scorn, but she was also awkward. Aunt Lucy came and saved the day and got the ladies chatting.

And the last entry for this chapter is Sabbath, May 29th.

All eyes turned when they entered the church. People were curious and mostly kind, but Catherine did hear someone say she's hardly got the first one's looks, and she hopes that her new stepmother did not hear that.

Now we're on to chapter 12. It is Monday, [00:17:00] May 30th. Spring is definitely here. There's fresh green grass, and the new wife is referred to as her from now on in Catherine's book, at least for a while, and then she has them bring down the bedding to air out. A couple of comments are made by the new wife that Catherine doesn't quite understand, and these comments are:

"Let me remember this thankful moment later when I have doubts." And also, "Such fine work here and made for use. May I be proven worthy to carry on the task."

Catherine thinks that these comments are strange, but I think a woman who has lived a bit more would understand what she's saying, so they didn't seem strange to me.

But to a girl of 14, it did seem rather strange.

Now it's Tuesday, May 31st. Uncle Jack brought up a tale of a man who preferred the Italian language, and he was arguing with a Bible [00:18:00] scholar who preferred Hebrew. The first man said God probably spoke Hebrew when kicking Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Then the Bible scholar said Eve probably spoke Italian, when she seduced Adam. 

Father laughed, and so Uncle Jack said something about. Wasting current students' time learning Greek. Father's new wife commented that there were children present and Uncle Jack soon left.

Wednesday, June 1st. Catherine comments how her stepmother's dresses are not meant for farm life.

Friday, June 3rd. The stepmother has so many cleaning chores for Catherine and Matty that Catherine hasn't seen Cassie in forever. She calls it spring cleaning.

Tuesday, June 7th, Cassie came by. The Shipmans have a new mural along their stair and one in their parlor.

The one in the parlor shows the hillside, the farm and elms, and only took one day to make. The stencillor had a book [00:19:00] and Catherine copied a bunch of instructions from the book. The stencils are metal and each for a different color. The stencillor knows the proper order to put them on the wall, so it is much quicker than trying to do a mural freehand.

The stencillor puts one up of one color, paints the color over, then puts it up another stencil over, and paints another color, then puts another stencil over it paints another color. So basically the whole mural is done that way instead of actually drawing it like an artist would actually paint it or draw it on the wall.

Catherine writes what she has copied from the book, and it's about the size of objects and showing distance and depth.

Then it's Wednesday, June 8th. Summer school starts. The girls go while the boys stay home and help on their farms. This made Catherine think about how her father used to have to ask others for help.

So after the other farmers, their boys would finish working on their farm. Then father would ask for help. [00:20:00] Father's farm chores were always done later in the season, and now he has a son at home to help, so he doesn't have to wait. Matty got a lot of presents to go with her starting to learn penmanship, including a quill and an ink stand.

The new teacher's name is Miss Orpha Williams, and she is tiny.

Then it's Thursday, June 9th. A weaver has arrived. This one is different than the normal one that they use, and he has arrived earlier in the year. The loom is set up in the parlor and he is making a new coverlet for their bed.

Friday, June 10th. The truth is found out about the quilt. The quilt that was given to the "phantom.". The weaver was still there, so lots of talk about linens and bedding and different designs that the stepmother knows, and she knows these designs by name. They all have a name. Then Matty got excited and wanted Catherine to tell about...

"Reds from the Russian's coat and grab the father's trousers."

I am guessing [00:21:00] that this is supposed to be something else that was said. And Matty, with her young ears, this is what she remembers of it. So she remembers it this way instead. And Catherine also didn't understand what it was.

So Matty got agitated and said, " and you and Cassie took the quilt and." Then the stepmom said, " Does the child mean, yet another quilt that I don't know about."

As of yet, no lie was asked. Remember that from the first part of the summary? But now Catherine would either have to tell the truth or she would have to lie.

Catherine told her everything, even about Asa's whipping. She told her the truth about the whole thing that happened.

The stepmom didn't know what to say, so she took them into the kitchen to start dinner. Halfway through making dinner, she asked if Catherine even thought about the danger, and Catherine said, no, he was cold and it was winter.

The stepmom made a move to hug her and [00:22:00] then she stopped. Then she said she needed to think.

Now it's Saturday, June 11th. It says, last night, Catherine overheard her stepmom and her father talking. She couldn't really understand what they were saying, but then she heard laughter .

Then it says later Saturday. Catherine is to make a replacement quilt. Catherine protested that she didn't know how, and the stepmom said that she would teach her. She stretched out her hand to Catherine and this made Catherine cry, and when Catherine looked up, the stepmom also had tears in her eyes.

Okay, so that is the end of the summary of chapters seven through twelve.

If this was helpful, if you liked it, if you want more of this, go ahead and give it a thumbs up and subscribe and help the algorithm do the work and I can make more. Until next time.