Across Five Aprils - Itasca Middle School

Summary and Analysis 15
SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS
Chapters 1–2
Summary
Chapter 1
The book begins as Ellen Creighton and her nine-year-old son, Jethro, plant potatoes for the
summer crop. Ellen has had twelve children, four of whom have died. She is a tired woman
who favors Jethro most of all. Three of Jethro’s siblings died from children’s paralysis
the year Jethro was born, but Jethro managed to escape the disease. Ellen knows he is
special, "as if, somehow, Destiny had marked him." They break to say goodbye to Shadrach
Yale, Jethro’s teacher who, upon not having enough money to continue his studies, began
teaching at the school where Matt Creighton, Jethro’s father, worked. Ellen had nursed
Shadrach back to health after he contracted typhoid fever, and Shadrach is now part of the
family—especially to Jethro’s sister Jenny, who has been in love with Shadrach for some
time.
Shadrach is planning to leave to go to a neighboring town to receive news about the
dispute between the North and the South. Ellen worries that he will bring back news of
war. As they are working in the field, Jethro tries to distract his mother by telling her about
Copernicus, but he knows that nothing can make her forget about the troubles. Talk of
Abraham Lincoln’s election, issues of tariffs, free states, slave states, and rebellion have
gotten so heated that war seems imminent. Jethro kind of looks forward to the war, because
"war meant loud brass music and shining horses ridden by men wearing uniforms.... "
Thinking of war prompts Jethro to think about his sister Mary’s death. A group of
hoodlums broke up a dance she was attending and chased Mary and her date. One of the
hoodlums, Travis Burdow, fired a pistol that frightened the horses, causing the wagon to
overturn and kill Mary. The town banded together to seek revenge on Travis Burdow—the
whole Burdow family had been hoodlums—but Matt Creighton had called an end to it.
Jethro feels the same about Lincoln as he did about his father then: "They had not shown
the hard, unyielding attitude that he admired.... " Ellen explains that Lincoln has to make a
choice when there seems only two wrong choices to make.
Nancy, Jethro’s brother John’s wife, and Jenny prepare dinner, and the family all sits
down to eat. The whole family including Bill and Tom, Jethro’s brothers, and Eb, Jethro’s
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