SUMMARY (Bryn Skibo, edited Deborah Madsen):

A sentimental romance novel in which the morally upright characters (Miss Abbott, Agnes, Dr. Noggs, and Henry) follow, or advise, elements of the water cure system while the devious, mean characters (Mrs. Morris, her cousin Albert Harris, the men smoking in New York, Mrs. Boggs) are characterized by their poor health and disdain for a healthy vegan lifestyle informed by Temperance principles.

The story is set in a small rural New England town and pits the mother, Mrs Morris, who is a former beauty from Philadelphia, characterized as overly emotional/hysterical, barely sleeping but not getting out of bed until 10am, a meat-eater, unimpressed with the country/outdoors, and overly attached to her useless, little white lap-dog, against her daughter, Agnes, a beautiful young woman who takes after her father in kindness and charity, but is wiser than both of her parents. Agnes rises early in the morning, enjoys getting outside to garden and get fresh air and exercise, enjoys cold water as a “healthful drink,” and eats apple with tapioca pudding for breakfast (64-65). When her mother offers Agnes tea she refuses in favor of water, which she says is healthier. This causes Mrs. Morris’s nose to turn red (35). In contrast Clara Abbott, who does not drink tea, has a healthy, rosy complexion (36); shortly thereafter, the narrator reveals that Mr. Morris was the fiancé to Clara Abbott but abandoned her for a “belle” in Philadelphia (39).