Janice Day — Text and Context

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In Category - Fantasy Juvenile Worlds

Authors: Long, Helen Beecher, Rogers, Walter S. (Walter Stanton), 1870-1937 [Illustrator] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2010 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Young women -- Juvenile fiction; New England -- Juvenile fiction; Villages -- Juvenile fiction Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 70,436

Reading time 307 min

Text sections 8

This digital edition of Janice Day — Text and Context is described by source-level measurements including 70,436 words, 5 hr 7 min estimated reading time, and 8 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 13.7 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Young women -- Juvenile fiction,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #32312

In this 1914 novel, Janice Day arrives in the New England village of Poketown and immediately begins organizing a reading-room for local boys, facing opposition from Elder Concannon and rallying support from neighbors like Miss 'Rill Scattergood.

Editorial Edition Score 4.7/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg32312

Read the Text

TEA, AND A TALK WITH DADDY

As it chanced, it was old Mrs. Scattergood herself who broached the forbidden topic, almost as soon as Miss 'Rill and Janice were in the house.

"What do you suppose that great gump, Hopewell Drugg, let his young'un do to-day, 'Rill? I was tellin' Miz' Beasely that it did seem to be _one_ mistake that Providence must ha' made, ter let that Drugg an' 'Cinda Stone have a gal baby--'specially if 'Cinda was goin' ter up and die like she done and leave the young'un to his care. Seems a shame, too."

"Why, mother! That doesn't sound a bit reverent," objected Miss 'Rill, softly. "Nor kind."

"Pshaw!" snorted the old lady. "You allus was silly as a goose about that Drugg. Sech shiftlessness I never did see. There the young'un was, out in a white dress an' white kid shoes this mornin'--her best, Sunday-go-ter-meetin' clo'es, I'll be bound!--sittin' on the aidge o' that gutter over there, makin' a mud dam! Lucky yesterday's rain has run off now, or she'd be out there yet, paddlin' in the water."

"I don't s'pose Hopewell knew of it," said the younger woman, timidly. "The poor little thing can dress herself, blind as she is. It's quite wonderful how she gets about."

"She ain't got no business to be out of his sight," grumbled Mrs. Scattergood.

Miss 'Rill sighed and shook her head, looking at Janice with a little nod of understanding. She changed the subject of talk quickly. The old lady began at once on Janice, "pumping" her as to her interests in Poketown, how she liked her relatives, and all. Then Mrs. Beasely, a very tall, angular figure in severe black, appeared at the sitting-room door and invited them in to supper.

Mrs. Beasely was a famous cook and housekeeper. She was a very grim lady, it seemed to Janice, and the enlarged crayon portrait of Mr. Beasely, its frame draped with crape, which glared down upon the groaning table in the dining-room, almost took the girl's appetite away.

Fortunately, however, the widow insisted upon facing the portrait of her departed husband, and Janice was back to him, so she recovered her appetite. And Mrs. Beasely's "tea", or "supper" as old-fashioned folks called the meal, was worthy of a hearty appetite.

Among old-fashioned New England housekeepers a "skimpy" table--especially when a visitor is present--is an unpardonable sin. There was hot bread and cold bread, sour-milk griddle cakes, each of a delicious golden brown with crisp edges, buttered, sugared, and stacked in tempting piles; sliced cold ham and corned beef; a hot dish of smoked beef and scrambled eggs; two kinds of jelly, and three kinds of preserves; plain and frosted cake, and last of all the inevitable pie and cheese.

With all this banquet Mrs. Beasely dared raise a moist eye to the grim crayon of the departed, and observe:

"I don't know what poor Charles would say to such a smeachin' supper, if he was alive. Oh, me! it does seem as though I didn't have no heart for cookery no more since he ain't here ter sample my work. A man's a gre't spur to a woman in her housekeepin'."

"Good Land o' Goshen!" ejaculated the outspoken Mrs. Scattergood. "I count 'em a gre't nuisance. If a body didn't have no men folks to 'tend to she could live on bread an' tea--if she so liked.

"Not but what I 'preciate a good lay-out of vittles like this o' yourn, Miz' Beasely. But thank the good Lord! I ain't been the slave to no man's appetite for goin' on fourteen year. An' that's about all men air, come ter think on it--a pair of muddy boots an' an unquenchable appetite!"

Mrs. Beasely looked horrified, shaking her widow's cap. "Poor Charles wasn't nothin' like that," she declared, softly.

"An' I don't s'pose a worse husband ever lived in Poketown," whispered the pessimistic old lady, when the widow had gone out of the room for something. "He's been dead ten year, ain't he, 'Rill?"

"About that, mother," admitted the school-teacher.

"An' I expect ev'ry year she makes more of a saint of him. I declare for't! sech wimmen oughter be made to marry ag'in. Nothin' but a second one will cure 'em of their fust!"

Mainly Janice and her friend, the little school-teacher, were engaged in their own particular conversation. The girl spent a very pleasant hour after tea, too, and started home just as dusk was dropping over the hillside town.

Continue Reading →

From the moment Janice Day steps off the narrow-gauge train onto the lake steamer Constance Colfax, her quick eye and amused commentary set the tone. She finds the “wheezy old steamer” and its “rheumatically” turning wheels ridiculous, yet she is genuinely curious about Poketown. The excerpts show a heroine who observes closely—noting the “row of nondescripts” on the dock—and who acts on her observations. Within the first chapters, she has already begun canvassing for a boys’ reading-room, a project that pits her against the stern Elder Concannon, who declares, “I disapprove, Miss—I disapprove!” The narrative voice is brisk and concrete, favoring dialogue and specific detail over sentiment.

A Village of Obstacles and Allies

The catalog subjects list “Young women,” “New England,” and “Villages,” but the excerpts reveal a village defined by its resistance to change. Elder Concannon’s refusal to support the reading-room—“You have not proved your case—to my mind”—is not the only hurdle. Janice must also manage her cousin Marty’s skepticism: “Aw, say! Let’s talk about the treasure chest we’ve found in our back yard.” Yet the same village supplies allies. Miss ’Rill Scattergood helps clean and kalsomine the room; Walky Dexter handles carting; a storekeeper donates oilcloth. The text shows a community where opposition and cooperation coexist, and where Janice’s persistence—“I’ll just show him!”—gradually turns skeptics into contributors. The reading-room becomes a concrete test of her ability to navigate local politics.

The Mechanics of a Good Deed

Janice’s project is not abstract. The excerpts detail the practical steps: she sets aside three dollars for rent, purchases a second-hand table and kitchen chairs, and secures lumber. A painter gives her brush and wood-stain; Hopewell Drugg supplies bracket lamps at wholesale discount. The narrative lingers on the physical transformation of the empty store—curtains to “keep out the prying eyes,” a hanging lamp to light the reading-table. This attention to material detail grounds Janice’s idealism in carpentry, paint, and oilcloth. The reader sees exactly how a reading-room gets built, down to the “enameled oilcloth to cover neatly the long table.” The story treats the work as interesting in itself, not merely as a backdrop for character growth.

Voice and Dialogue as Character

Helen Beecher Long gives Janice a distinctive voice: direct, humorous, and determined. When Elder Concannon lectures her, she replies, “Oh, my goodness! I wouldn’t undertake to have anything to do with governing them—no, indeed!” The exclamation marks and the repeated “I’ll show him” signal a protagonist who talks back without being rude. Other characters are drawn through their speech patterns: Marty’s “Say! would a duck swim?” and Walky Dexter’s comic silence under a vow of secrecy. The dialogue carries the plot forward—Janice’s canvass, her negotiations with the boys, her rebuttals to the Elder—and reveals social dynamics without authorial commentary. The excerpts suggest a book where what people say matters as much as what they do.

Readers approaching Janice Day should expect a story driven by practical problem-solving and local color, not by dramatic conflict. The excerpts offer no hint of romance or adventure beyond the reading-room campaign. Pay attention to the minor characters—Miss ’Rill, Walky, Marty—who provide comic relief and community texture. The novel’s interest lies in how a determined young woman turns a village’s skepticism into grudging support, one subscription at a time.

Poketown’s reading-room made me think of my own small library visits, shelves smelling of dust and promise. It reminded me of how, in The Third Class at Miss Kaye's: A School Story — Story, Setting & Ideas, a single determined person shifts a whole room’s mood. Both books catch that moment when quiet effort starts a ripple I still feel.