# Where Pennyroyal Grew explained — The Country of the Pointed Firs

> Chapter companion for The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett.

## What happens

The narrator and Mrs. Todd return to Green Island for dinner with Mrs. Blackett and William. After the meal, Mrs. Todd leads the narrator to a secluded cliffside pasture where they gather pennyroyal. There, Mrs. Todd reveals the spot's personal significance: it was where she courted her husband Nathan, and where she secretly mourned another love. The chapter closes with the pair returning to the house for tea before heading home.

## Themes in this chapter

### Memory and the Past

Mrs. Todd's recollection of her courtship and loss at the pennyroyal plot shows how memory is tied to place and sensory experience.

### Isolation and Solitude

The remote cliffside pasture and Mrs. Todd's private grief emphasize the solitary nature of her inner life.

### Nature and the Landscape

The landscape—the steep pasture, rocky cliffs, and sea—shapes the characters' experiences and emotions, especially in the pennyroyal gathering.

## Character check-ins

### The Narrator

Accompanies Mrs. Todd to the pennyroyal plot and learns about her past.

### Mrs. Almira Todd

Leads the narrator to a private, sacred place where she gathers pennyroyal and confides her grief over Nathan and a lost love.

### Mrs. Blackett

Hosts the dinner with grace and self-forgetfulness; her portrait is shown by Mrs. Todd.

### William Blackett

Says a blessing at dinner, works the farm, and is described as steady but lacking his mother's 'snap.'

## Key lines

> There, I wanted you to see this—'tis mother's picture

Mrs. Todd shows the narrator a daguerreotype of her mother as a young woman.

_Reveals family history and the narrator's growing intimacy with the Todds._

> There's nothin' like it; oh no, there's no such pennyr'yal as this in the state of Maine. It's the right pattern of the plant, and all the rest I ever see is but an imitation.

Mrs. Todd insists that the pennyroyal growing on this cliff is uniquely authentic.

_Highlights the specialness of the place and its connection to Mrs. Todd's personal memories._

> Nathan, my husband, an' I used to love this place when we was courtin', and—when he was lost, 'twas just off shore tryin' to get in by the short channel out there between Squaw Islands, right in sight o' this headland where we'd set an' made our plans all summer long.

Mrs. Todd reveals that this spot was where she and Nathan courted, and that he died at sea nearby.

_This confession deepens the reader's understanding of Mrs. Todd's hidden grief and the landscape's emotional weight._

> 'Twas but a dream with us. I knew it when he was gone. I knew it—I knew it afore he started to go to sea. My heart was gone out o' my keepin' before I ever saw Nathan; but he loved me well, and he made me real happy, and he died before he ever knew what he'd had to know if we'd lived long together.

Mrs. Todd admits she never truly loved Nathan because her heart belonged to another, but she cherished his love and is grateful he never discovered the truth.

_Reveals the complexity of Mrs. Todd's emotional life and the theme of unspoken love._

## Links

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