The County Fair

# Museum Catalog Note: The County Fair

This issue of Street & Smith's Select Series (No. 33, January 15, 1890) contains "The County Fair," adapted by Neil Burgess from Charles Barnard's celebrated play. The narrative concerns Miss Abigail Prue, a sharp-tongued but kindhearted New England spinster living on a Vermont farm, who must assume guardianship of orphaned children following her sister Amanda's death. Amanda, married to Philip Denton (an unsuccessful photographer who documented tin-types), has died in Rockville, Vermont, leaving behind her young daughter and forcing Miss Abby to contend with childcare despite her own self-doubts. The story explores tensions between Philip's impractical nature and romantic temperament, Miss Abby's pragmatic severity, and themes of domestic obligation and familial duty, set against rural Vermont village life with its characteristic gossip and social observation.