Chapter 10: Altha

Summary

• Grace appears young and small on the witness stand, evoking memories of their childhood friendship for the narrator.
• The narrator recalls a vivid summer at age thirteen, spent with Grace exploring the village and countryside.
• Grace, always fearless, loses her boot in a bog and later gives the narrator her own spare pair.
• The friendship ended in the same summer when Grace's mother became seriously ill.
• Grace rushed to the narrator's mother, reputed for her healing knowledge, in hopes of saving her sick mother.
• The narrator's mother, sensing the urgency, takes healing remedies and sets out with the girls to aid Grace's mother.
• In a heavy rain, they reach the Metcalfe farm to find Grace's father despondent and the doctor absent.
• Despite his reservations, Grace's father allows the narrator's mother to treat his wife.
• The treatments are initiated too late, and Grace's mother convulses and dies despite their efforts.
• Grace is shielded from witnessing her mother's agonizing death by the narrator.
• The narrator questions her mother about why they couldn't save Grace's mother on their return home.
• In the aftermath, rumors spread through the village, likely blaming the mother and daughter for the death.
• The narrator is kept away from Grace, who is forbidden by her father to see her friend.
• Their communication ceases for seven years following the incident.