In September, Kit anticipates attending her first corn husking bee. This is the closest thing to a party that the Puritan community allows, and Judith can talk of nothing else. Before the festivities start, Kit makes a short visit to see Hannah, who reports that Prudence’s reading lessons are coming along well.

On the way back home, Kit runs into John. He tells her that he won’t be attending the bee because he wants to visit with Mercy. Kit is delighted to learn that he loves her cousin. However, she realizes that John’s choice will create trouble: “He was so completely unaware, so serious and shy, as Judith herself had said, so wrapped in his books and his dreams of Mercy that he had never even noticed that Judith had set her cap for him” (140).

That evening, the Wood family is about to leave for the party when John arrives. Judith interprets his visit as an attempt to ask for her hand, which Matthew readily grants. Too embarrassed to protest, John doesn’t contradict the family’s assumptions. Later, William broaches the topic of marriage to Kit, but she puts him off until his house is completed in the spring.