Villages, as well as people, exist subject to laws of change, increase, final dissolution. They have character, complex, of course, still individual.

It is interesting to watch the inevitable result when a village of large area and restricted population increases in population as years go on. The one village becomes impossible. It is like a bulb of several years' growth. If life and bloom are to continue, separation into component parts is indicated. The original village becomes several, and yet the first characteristics are never entirely lost.

In the village of Barr exactly this process ensued with the increase of population. Instead of one sparsely populated village covering a large land area, there were four -- Barr Center, the Barr Center, South Barr, Barr-by-the-Sea, and Leicester. Each had its own government, each village was an entity, and yet the original entity of Barr remained indestructible.

The Edgewater family stamped the four villages with their individuality; so did the Leicesters; so did the Sylvesters; so did all strongly rooted families.

The stories in this volume relate to families living in patriarchal fashion, although not under one roof, under one village tree. . . .

Includes "Sarah Edgewater," "The Old Man of the Field," "The Voice of the Clock," "Value Received," "The Flowering Bush," "The Outside of the House," "The Liar," "Sour Sweetings," "Both Cheeks," "The Soldier Man," "The Ring with the Green Stone," and "A Retreat to the Goal."