The Country of the Pointed Firs

A writer first saw the little fishing village of Dunnet Landing, on the coast of Maine, from the deck of a small steamer one bright June morning.There was something in its grey houses and dark pointed fir trees that caught at her heart, and she knew at once she would come back.Two or three summers later she returned, meaning to stay for a season and write.

She took a room in the house of Mrs. Almira Todd, an elderly widow who lived at the edge of the village.Mrs. Todd gathered wild herbs on the hills and sold them, along with quiet home-made remedies and a sharp, spruce-flavoured beer.Her small front garden was so crowded with lovage, thyme, and pennyroyal that a visitor had to brush past their strong sweet smell to reach the door.

Among the herbs grew one strange, pungent plant that Mrs. Todd never named.Late at night the narrator would sometimes hear her go out and tend it alone by the light of the moon.There was something old and half-magical about Mrs. Todd, as if she kept knowledge that had been handed down for a very long time.

All through the day, neighbours came to the back door — not only for herbs, but for advice.They spoke to Mrs. Todd in low voices about their aches, their worries, and their family troubles, and went away comforted.Now and then she left the narrator to mind the shop and weigh out a packet of dried leaves for a customer.

The little house was busy and full of talk, and the narrator found she could not get her own writing done there.On a hill above the village stood the empty summer schoolhouse, and she arranged to rent it as a quiet place to work by day.Mrs. Todd was a little hurt at first, but she soon understood, and packed her a lunch each morning without another word.

So the summer settled into an easy rhythm: writing on the breezy hill by day, and Mrs. Todd’s herb-scented kitchen in the evening.Little by little, the old herb-woman and the visitor became true friends.