New Outlooks

"New Outlooks" is a collection of essays by Sarah Orne Jewett that explores themes of nature, community, and the intricacies of human relationships. Written with Jewett's characteristic eloquence and keen observation, the essays reflect her deep appreciation for the New England landscape and the lives of its inhabitants. Through her thoughtful prose, Jewett encourages readers to contemplate their own place in the world, offering insights that resonate with the beauty and challenges of life. The book showcases her literary talent and her ability to capture the essence of a bygone era.

• Short story

								
Dr. Leslie held too securely the affection of his townspeople to be
in danger of losing their regard or respect, yet he would have been
half pained and half amused if he had known how foolishly his plans,
which came in time to be his ward's also, were smiled and frowned upon
in the Oldfields houses. Conformity is the inspiration of much
second-rate virtue. If we keep near a certain humble level of morality
and achievement, our neighbors are willing to let us slip through life
unchallenged. Those who anticipate the opinions and decisions of
society must expect to be found guilty of many sins.

There was not one of the young village people so well known as the
doctor's little girl, who drove with him day by day, and with whom he
kept such delightful and trustful companionship. If she had been asked
in later years what had decided her to study not only her profession,
but any profession, it would have been hard for her to answer anything
beside the truth that the belief in it had grown with herself. There
had been many reasons why it seemed unnecessary. There was every
prospect that she would be rich enough to place her beyond the
necessity of self-support. She could have found occupation in simply
keeping the doctor's house and being a cordial hostess in that home
and a welcome guest in other people's. She was already welcome
everywhere in Oldfields, but in spite of this, which would have seemed
to fill the hearts and lives of other girls, it seemed to her like a
fragment of her life and duty; and when she had ordered her
housekeeping and her social duties, there was a restless readiness for
a more absorbing duty and industry; and, as the years went by, all her
desire tended in one direction. The one thing she cared most to learn
increased its attraction continually, and though one might think the
purpose of her guardian had had its influence and moulded her
character by its persistence, the truth was that the wise doctor
simply followed as best he could the leadings of the young nature
itself, and so the girl grew naturally year by year, reaching out half
unconsciously for what belonged to her life and growth; being taught
one thing more than all, that her duty must be followed eagerly and
reverently in spite of the adverse reasons which tempted and sometimes
baffled her. As she grew older she was to understand more clearly that
indecision is but another name for cowardice and weakness; a habit of
mind that quickly increases its power of hindrance. She had the faults
that belonged to her character, but these were the faults of haste and
rashness rather than the more hopeless ones of obstinacy or a lack of
will and purpose.

The Sunday evening tea-drinking with Mrs. Graham, though somewhat
formidable at first to our heroine, became quickly one of her dearest
pleasures, and led to a fast friendship between the kind hostess and
her young guest. Soon Nan gave herself eagerly to a plan of spending
two or three evenings a week across the way for the purpose of reading
aloud, sometimes from books she did not understand, but oftener from
books of her own choice. It was supposed to be wholly a kindness on
the young girl's part, and Mrs. Graham allowed the excuse of a
temporary ailment of her own strong and useful eyes to serve until
neither she nor Nan had the least thought of giving up their pleasant
habit of reading together. And to this willing listener Nan came in
time with her youthful dreams and visions of future prosperities in
life, so that presently Mrs. Graham knew many things which would have
surprised the doctor, who on the other hand was the keeper of equally
amazing and treasured confidences of another sort. It was a great
pleasure to both these friends, but most especially to the elderly
woman, that Nan seemed so entirely satisfied with their friendship.
The busy doctor, who often had more than enough to think and worry
about, sometimes could spare but little time to Nan for days together,
but her other companion was always waiting for her, and the smile was
always ready by way of greeting when the child looked eagerly up at
the parlor window. What stories of past days and memories of youth and
of long-dead friends belonging to the dear lady's own girlhood were
poured into Nan's delighted ears! She came in time to know Mrs.
Graham's own immediate ancestors, and the various members of her
family with their fates and fortunes, as if she were a contemporary,
and was like another grandchild who was a neighbor and beloved crony,
which real blessing none of the true grandchildren had ever been lucky
enough to possess. She formed a welcome link with the outer world, did
little Nan, and from being a cheerful errand-runner, came at last to
paying friendly visits in the neighborhood to carry Mrs. Graham's
messages and assurances. And from all these daily suggestions of
courtesy and of good taste and high breeding, and helpful fellowship
with good books, and the characters in their stories which were often
more real and dear and treasured in her thoughts than her actual
fellow townsfolk, Nan drew much pleasure and not a little wisdom; at
any rate a direction for which she would all her life be thankful. It
would have been surprising if her presence in the doctor's house had
not after some time made changes in it, but there was no great
difference outwardly except that she gathered some trifling
possessions which sometimes harmonized, and as often did not, with the
household gods of the doctor and Marilla. There was a shy sort of
intercourse between Nan and Mrs. Graham's grandchildren, but it was
not very valuable to any of the young people at first, the country
child being too old and full of experience to fellowship with the
youngest, and too unversed in the familiar machinery of their social
life to feel much kinship with the eldest.

It was during one of these early summer visits, and directly after a
tea-party which Marilla had proudly projected on Nan's account, that
Dr. Leslie suddenly announced that he meant to go to Boston for a few
days and should take Nan with him. This event had long been promised,
but had seemed at length like the promise of happiness in a future
world, reasonably certain, but a little vague and distant. It was a
more important thing than anybody understood, for a dear and familiar
chapter of life was ended when the expectant pair drove out of the
village on their way to the far-off railway station, as another had
been closed when the door of the Thacher farm-house had been shut and
padlocked, and Nan had gone home one snowy night to live with the
doctor. The weather at any rate was different now, for it was early
June, the time when doctors can best give themselves a holiday; and
though Dr. Leslie assured himself that he had little wish to take the
journey, he felt it quite due to his ward that she should see a little
more of the world, and happily due also to certain patients and his
brother physicians that he should visit the instrument-makers' shops,

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