Willa Cather

The Song of the Lark Willa Cather

Thea Kronborg is the daughter of the Swedish Methodist pastor in the small town of Moonstone, Colorado. She is a tall, fair girl with grave, candid eyes, and her shy awkwardness hides restless depths of thought and feeling. Although she grows up in a lively household of brothers and sisters, she has no real friends among children her own age. Of her family, only her aunt, Tilly Kronborg, seems to understand her; but Tilly is so ridiculous in her speech and in her actions that neighbors only laugh when she tells them that the day is coming when Thea will make Moonstone sit up and take notice. One of her few friends is Dr. Howard Archie, the town physician, who, when she was eleven, saved Thea's life during an attack of pneumonia. He is unhappily married to a mean-spirited woman who wants only three things in life: to have her cigar-smoking husband away from home as much as possible, to keep her house closed against dust, and to live on food from cans. Having no children of his own, Dr. Archie loves Thea in a fatherly way, and he often wonders what will become of a girl so passionate and determined.