Mary Stark Wood of Bennington, Vermont, a young lady of 20, descends from Molly Stark, the famous Revolutionary War heroine who helped protect soldiers from smallpox and whose husband was the noted general John Stark. Though respectable, her family falls on hard times, and Mary teaches music, cans fruit, and embroiders handkerchiefs to help them survive. She nevertheless refuses the hand of the town’s most eligible bachelor, Sam Bannett, whom she likes but does not love. Instead, she takes the job out West at Bear Creek. 

As they gather cattle on a cold Spring day at Sunk Creek Ranch, the cowboys listen and laugh as the Virginian sings a bawdy song 79 verses long. Riding the trail, they come upon the new schoolhouse, which makes them edgy about oncoming changes as more settlers arrive. They stop for dinner at the house of an old comrade who has gotten married, fathered two children, and settled down. The man’s wife adjures them to get married, too. That night on the prairie, lying in their bedrolls, the cowboys hear the Virginian mention the comrade’s new family obligations and curse elegantly: “Oh, sugar!” (98).