Ethan Frome

Ethan’s good mood extends into the next day, when Jotham joins him and Mattie for breakfast. A storm has made the roads icy, so the two men decide to wait until afternoon to take the lumber into Starkfield. Ethan privately hopes to dart into town before then to buy glue, but by the time he’s finished loading the sledge, it’s clear this won’t be possible; the weather is bad, and one of Ethan’s horses has sustained an injury that needs tending. He and Jotham therefore return to the farm for lunch, and Ethan leaves with the lumber afterwards while Jotham goes to fetch Zeena.

After dropping off the logs, Ethan hurries first to Michael Eady’s store and then to the widow Homan’s, where he manages to purchase glue. Ethan returns to the farm but learns from Mattie that Zeena is already back and in her bedroom. Reassuring Mattie that he’ll fix the dish that night, Ethan goes to feed the horses. He runs into Jotham and invites him to stay for dinner, eager for a “neutralising presence” now that Zeena is back, but Jotham emphatically declines: “To Ethan there was something vaguely ominous in this stolid rejection of free food and warmth, and he wondered what had happened on the drive to nerve Jotham to such stoicism” (60).