Emily Of New Moon

Emily is excited that New Moon has many interesting and beautiful aspects, and her first days there are full of exploration. She likes walking through the orchards and watching Jimmy and Laura skim the milk after milking the cows.

Elizabeth gives Emily the job of bringing the cows out to pasture and closing the gate behind them. She is a little scared of the cows the first time she does this but soon realizes that they are gentle and compliant creatures. She notices several old houses near the pasture and wonders who lives there.

Later, she finds Jimmy, and he shows her his garden. He explains that the garden is the only thing not controlled by Elizabeth; she let him have it to make up for pushing him down a well when they were children. This injury is said to have caused Jimmy to be “not quite right” in the head, but he insists that he is fine and that people think something is wrong with him just because he writes poetry and doesn’t worry too much about anything. He tells her that a spell on the garden protects it from droughts, blights, and worms, which spooks Emily a little.