Author: McClung, Nellie L.

I was waiting downstairs for Pat one day and saw this book on the shelf; I thought must have come from Mum and Dad’s library. However, the inscription inside has a name that I don’t recognize and a Fergus, Ontario inscription. Could it have been one of Grandma McKnight’s?

Pearl Watson has been in love with Dr. Clay, the rural doctor, since she was 15; he returned her feelings but said they must wait three years. The three years have passed. Pearl has attended “Normal” school and is ready to start her first teaching job. It is a time when women didn’t have the right to vote and, in fact, they had very few rights. Both Pearl and the doctor get involved in the politics of the day in order to change that.

The story takes place in the Souris Valley in Saskatchewan, although the author is from Alberta. I was very interested when one of the characters had ties to the North; she lived for a time at the Hudson’s Bay post in Fort Resolution and was married in Hay River. That character turns out to have a surprising part in the story.

If you like old-fashioned stories with a happy ending you’ll enjoy this one.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *