Driven Back to Eden · Chapter
Our Sunny Kitchen explained
The family settles into the farmhouse, with the narrator buying rubber boots and provisions.
What happens
The family settles into the farmhouse, with the narrator buying rubber boots and provisions. Mr. Jones helps move furniture, and the narrator seeks his practical advice. Mrs. Jones provides a dinner featuring a rabbit potpie made from Merton's catch, and the family enjoys their first meal together in the new kitchen, which is set up with a stove from New York. The narrator plans to use the sunny east window for growing plants.
Themes in this chapter
Community and Neighborliness
Mr. Jones helps with moving and offers advice, and Mrs. Jones provides the family's first dinner, demonstrating rural neighborly support.
Self-Reliance and Hard Work
The narrator emphasizes earning a living through farming, not amusement, and the family begins settling in with practical tasks like clearing snow and unpacking.
Family and Parental Duty
The narrator prioritizes his wife's time and strength, arranges a surprise dinner, and encourages Merton's skill development, showing parental care.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
Arranges for dinner from Mrs. Jones, sets up the kitchen, and encourages Merton to practice shooting.
- Merton
Shoots the rabbit that provides the first country dinner, though he is disappointed in his marksmanship.
- Winnie
Helps clear snow with Bobsey, wearing overshoes, and is ravenous at dinner.
- Bobsey
Works with Winnie to clear a path to the well, and eats heartily.
- Mousie
Senses the narrator's secret about dinner, and is promised a table for flower seeds by the east window.
- Mr. Jones
Helps move furniture, gives advice about spring work, and brings the dinner with Junior.
Key passages
“A smart warm rain would be the best thing that could happen to yer,” said Mr. Jones, as he helped me carry in furniture and put up beds; “it would take the snow off.”
Mr. Jones says a warm rain would be beneficial because it would melt the snow.
Mr. Jones offers practical weather advice during the move-in.
“I did not come to the country to amuse myself, like so many city people. I don’t blame them; I wish I could afford farming for fun. I came to earn a living for my wife and children, and I am anxious to be about it.”
The narrator states he moved to the country to make a living for his family, not for recreation.
The narrator expresses his serious intent to farm for sustenance, not leisure.
“It cheers one up to enter a kitchen like this,” she said. “It is to be your garden for a time also,” I exclaimed to Mousie.”
The wife finds the kitchen cheerful, and the narrator tells Mousie it will also serve as a temporary garden.
The sunny kitchen is both a workspace and a place for starting plants.