A Gathering of Days

Catherine, called Cath by her friends, is thirteen at the start of the book, and has a birthday in May, so for most of the journal she is thirteen. Her best friend is Cassie, who dies during the course of the journal. Catherine has a younger sister, Matty. Her mother died four years before the journal takes place. Her father remarried in May 1831, and his wife, a widow, brought her own son to live with them, Daniel. They all figured out how to be a family and Catherine learns to love her new stepmom. == Cassie Shipman ==

Cassie is Catherine's best friend. She is a year older than Catherine, fourteen, but the girls are the same height. She has three brothers: David Horatio (two years older), Asa Hale (Catherine's age), and William Mason, the baby. In the summer of 1831, Cassie is suddenly struck with a high fever. Her condition worsens over the next nine days, and she dies in her sleep on August 20, 1831. In her 1899 letter to her great-granddaughter, Catherine says of her dear childhood friend, "of all of us, the only one never to grow old." ==Reception==

At the time of the book's publication, Kirkus Reviews said, "The tone is suitably restrained, and the language, which means to mimic accurately the speech and writing patterns of the period, is so awkwardly formal at times that to follow it the reader must be sharply attentive. The reward is a warm and interesting glimpse into a past way of life dependent on the close society of neighbors, friends, and family. Carefully researched and convincingly delivered." ==Notes==