A Lost Lady

These chapters introduce the setting and many of the story’s main characters. Chapter 1 looks back on the events of the novel, noting that they took place “thirty or forty years ago” (3). There is a sense that conditions have deteriorated since the events of the story in Sweet Water, which is described as “one of those grey towns along the Burlington railroad, which are so much greyer today than they were then” (3). There are other indicators of Sweet Water’s former fairytale qualities, such as the idyllic scenes of the boys playing in beautiful, unspoiled marshes.

There is distinct foreshadowing in these chapters, particularly at the end of Chapter 1. It is indicated that Captain Forrester suffered a fall from a horse that resulted in the loss of his livelihood, and that the Forresters retired to the house in Sweet Water. Mrs. Forrester is shown as a lively and vivacious young woman, but it is foreshadowed that she also declines: “He grew old there—and even she, alas! grew older” (5).

A major theme of these chapters is the setting’s class system. The narrator says that class distinctions were conspicuous in the prairie states, with strong divisions between homesteaders and workmen and the bankers and land developers. Captain Forrester belongs to the highest social strata, those “connected to the Burlington” (3). As a road builder who enabled the expansion of the railroad, Captain Forrester belongs to the class that developed the West.

This social class system extends to the children of the town. When Mrs. Forrester sees a group of boys approaching her house, only Niel and George are referred to by name. “The others were just little boys from the town” (7) who are identified by their fathers’ professions (butcher, tailor, etc.) rather than their names. Niel and George have “manners” that the other boys do not, as shown when they stand when Mrs. Forrester arrives at the grove. The Blum brothers, being of a more recent immigrant class, understand that Mrs. Forrester’s wealth places her in an exalted position; “[t]hey realized, more than their companions, that such a fortunate and privileged class was an axiomatic fact in the social order” (10). When the boys all bring the injured Niel to the house, the Blums instinctively stay outside the kitchen door.

Ivy Peters represents the antithesis of the old social order. Ivy scoffs at the suggestion that Mrs. Forrester could prohibit him from hunting in the marsh land, saying, “And anyhow, she can’t say anything to me. I’m just as good as she is” (10). The other boys find this absurd, against the natural order of things. Ivy uses Niel’s fall from the tree as an opportunity to see the inside of the Forrester house. He wants to stay in the house and show that he belongs there, that he is the Forresters’ equal, “but he found himself on the front porch, put out by that delicately modulated voice as effectually as if he had been kicked out by the brawniest tough in town” (14). This sets the stage for future conflict between Ivy and the Forresters.

Niel experiences a revelation when he enters the Forresters’ world, symbolized by being laid on their bed while injured. He is 12 years old, an impressionable age. Niel is somewhat between social classes, as he comes from a “good” family, but his father is not a man of means. He “was a gentle, agreeable man, young, good-looking, with nice manners, but Niel felt there was an air of failure and defeat about his family” (15). A slovenly relative keeps house for them, and Niel is ashamed of their house’s disordered appearance. Niel identifies with his deceased mother’s family, who are more prosperous. When Niel sees the Forresters’ standard of living and Mrs. Forrester’s genteel behavior, he aspires to the same type of refined existence.