Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Far Country
    The Far Country
    The Far Country
    Ebook182 pages2 hours

    The Far Country

    By Doreen Milstead

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The Ripest Tomatoes Are The Best - An overweight woman from Maine decides to become a mail order bride to a farmer in California, because there are no suitors left where she lives. The widower with two children meets her at the train station and she thinks he is shocked by her weight, but he remains mostly silent for a long time. She begins to love his children but worries that she will never be able to crack the farmer’s tough-seeming exterior.

    The Texas Rancher Tries One More Time For Love - A woman from Philadelphia decides to take a chance and answer an ad from a man who’s a rancher in Texas. He is quite rich, but homely, and needs to test out a woman’s resolve to marry him not for his money, but for his personality and other character traits. He’s given this method of finding love several other chances but the women, once they take a look at him, have run off and married others in the same small town.

    Big Enough For Love - Sick of the taunts from the inhabitants of her small town, above average weight Jocelyn had endured numerous insults since she was a small child. An ad for mail order brides spurred her to act and she wrote to the company and was matched up with a rancher in California who wanted a wife with a sense of adventure.

    Bugged Out In Nebraska - A garment factory worker, not a fan of insects, heads out to a farmer in Nebraska, where the area appears to be under an imminent threat of attack by locusts, at least if the couple are to believe a crazy beekeeping old man who dresses up in a giant locust costume, and who keeps on yelling “They’re Coming”, every chance he gets.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSusan Hart
    Release dateJan 8, 2017
    ISBN9781370397112
    The Far Country

    Read more from Doreen Milstead

    Related to The Far Country

    Related ebooks

    Western Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Strange Present

      Apr 22, 2022

      A Strange Present
      5 min read

    • Article

      Follow Your HEART

      Mar 30, 2022

      Follow Your HEART
      9 min read

    • Article

      Follow your HEART

      Apr 20, 2022

      Follow your HEART
      8 min read

    • Article

      Grandma Ruth’s UP Truck Stop

      May 10, 2021

      Rachel’s last semester at the University of Michigan would have been easy if not for the news that reached her six weeks before her final exams. It wasn’t a phone call—the phone lines were still down from the most recent blizzard to hit Paradise, she

      28 min read

    • Article

      Our Mysterious Friendship

      Jul 25, 2019

      Our Mysterious Friendship
      4 min read

    • Article

      Who Knew?

      Feb 12, 2021

      Who Knew?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Love And The LAND GIRL

      May 19, 2021

      Love And The LAND GIRL
      9 min read

    • Article

      Sienna’s Monster

      Mar 10, 2021

      Sienna lived with a monster, but no one else knew it. The first time Sienna realized that her monster wasn’t like the rest was in 4th grade. The whole grade assembled in the auditorium. A police officer watched them enter from his place on the stage.

      26 min read

    • Article

      Goodwill to All Men

      Jan 7, 2022

      Goodwill to All Men
      5 min read

    • Article

      Australia Reads At Home

      May 18, 2020

      Australia Reads At Home
      7 min read

    • Article

      Sienna’s Monster

      Sep 10, 2023

      Sienna lived with a monster, but no one else knew it. The first time Sienna realized her monster wasn’t like the rest was in fourth grade. The whole grade assembled in the auditorium. A police officer watched them enter from his place on the stage. H

      27 min read

    • Article

      Runaway Bride

      Aug 21, 2023

      It’s definitely a mistake to have worn the dress to the airport. Alana knows that the second she walks past the terminal’s Wetherspoons – rammed at 5.30am – and is greeted by a chorus of “Lost your groom, love?” by a bunch of drunk stags in matching

      6 min read

    • Article

      Amanda’s Naked Truth

      Oct 26, 2020

      Amanda’s Naked Truth
      6 min read

    • Article

      Follow your HEART

      Apr 13, 2022

      Follow your HEART
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Bath

      Jan 5, 2021

      The Bath
      3 min read

    • Article

      Orange You Glad

      Jun 1, 2021

      Orange You Glad
      13 min read

    • Article

      Tea For Two?

      Oct 26, 2021

      Tea For Two?
      6 min read

    • Article

      Absolute Best

      Apr 30, 2021

      Absolute Best
      20 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Feb 12, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      9 min read

    • Article

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two

      Oct 30, 2019

      THE BLACK SPIDER Part Two
      25 min read

    • Article

      Wise old Mrs Merrow

      Jul 27, 2020

      Littlesea was everything the description said: a white stone cottage with beams and higgledy-piggledy walls and steps away from a tiny quay in a private bay. It would have been the perfect spot for honeymooners had it not had just the one single bed

      8 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Jan 20, 2020

      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

      7 min read

    • Article

      Love And The LAND GIRL

      May 12, 2021

      Love And The LAND GIRL
      9 min read

    • Article

      Follow Your HEART

      Apr 6, 2022

      Follow Your HEART
      9 min read

    • Article

      Love And The LAND GIRL

      May 5, 2021

      Love And The LAND GIRL
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Perfect Wedding

      Apr 6, 2020

      A Perfect Wedding
      5 min read

    • Article

      Love And The LAND GIRL

      May 26, 2021

      Love And The LAND GIRL
      9 min read

    • Article

      Love Sounds

      Oct 10, 2022

      My daughter’s getting married. She is thirty-two and beautiful. I remember—it seems like just the other day—when she was sprawled and breathless. There she was, flat on her back, covered by pink panda pajamas, the odor of sleep drenched in her pillow

      13 min read

    • Article

      Happy Endings

      Sep 1, 2023

      Happy Endings
      5 min read

    • Article

      Is My Mum Cheating?

      Jun 2, 2021

      Is My Mum Cheating?
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Far Country

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Far Country - Doreen Milstead

      The Far Country

      By

      Doreen Milstead

      Copyright 2017 Susan Hart

      The Ripest Tomatoes Are The Best

      The Texas Rancher Tries One More Time For Love

      Big Enough For Love

      Bugged Out In Nebraska

      The Ripest Tomatoes Are The Best

      Synopsis: The Ripest Tomatoes Are The Best - An overweight woman from Maine decides to become a mail order bride to a farmer in California, because there are no suitors left where she lives. The widower with two children meets her at the train station and she thinks he is shocked by her weight, but he remains mostly silent for a long time. She begins to love his children but worries that she will never be able to crack the farmer’s tough-seeming exterior.

      Sara didn’t want to know the answer, and delayed asking the question that she had to ask as long as possible, taking an overly long sip of her tea, carefully setting it in the saucer so that it didn’t clink, nibbling at a cookie she could barely taste, and washing the crumbs down with another long sip of tea.

      But finally, the silence had stretched too much, and the question needed to be asked. It always came to this point, and Sara dreaded the asking almost as much as she dreaded the answer.

      Why not me? she said softly, startling her companion for tea into slopping a little of his beverage down the side of his cup.

      Pardon? he asked, dabbing at imaginary cookie debris around his moustache. I didn’t hear you, my dear.

      Sara cringed. Was she really going to have to give those three horrible words voice again? There didn’t seem to be any way around it.

      Why not me? she said, a little louder this time, taking care to enunciate each painful syllable.

      I’m just not ready to settle down yet, he said, not meeting her eyes, instead becoming intent on rearranging the selection of cookies on the platter between them. I have some business venture to pursue yet, and wouldn’t want to burden you with the stress of having a husband who didn’t make his fortune before marriage.

      She’d heard many answers to the question, ranging from my mother has recently fallen ill, but I didn’t want to be rude and break off our luncheon to God has spoken to me, and I must follow his call to remain celibate. None of them, however, had been true. She knew this because she wasn’t stupid. She would never agree to meet with eligible bachelors, suitors who had recently pledged their interest in meeting her on name and status only, if they were otherwise indisposed, not ready or willing to get married.

      That realization usually came after they met Sara in person, and they always had convenient escapes rolling off the tongue within the first few minutes of whatever social afternoon or evening they had planned.

      Sara knew the real reason, of course, the reason all of her suitors decided with other courses of action for their lives besides marriage once they made her official acquaintance.

      She was fat.

      You’re not fat, her mother would say — Sara could hear the disapproving tone of voice in her head. You’re attractively plump. Men love a big, healthy girl.

      If that were true, then Sara would’ve thought that, surely by now, surely after the dozens and dozens of men she’d had to entertain, she would’ve found the one who loved a big, healthy girl.

      But the moment she came to the door of the house to greet them, their eyes would widen, their speech would falter, and the excuses would eventually start accumulating. It never failed.

      She wished one of them would have the decency to be honest, to admit the fact that he didn’t want to marry her because he didn’t want a fat wife, didn’t want to be seen with a woman larger than himself, didn’t want the ridicule from his friends and family and the general public. It would be refreshing to hear the truth, she decided, but none of them had the courage to give it to her.

      Today, looking at the former suitor, sitting across from her only because he thought he would easily scoop up a little wife who came with a pretty allowance from her wealthy heritage, Sara decided she was done.

      There aren’t any business ventures, she said flatly, cutting his meandering excuses off, setting her teacup down with a sharp crack that echoed faintly in the foyer.

      Pardon? he said again, his Adam’s apple bobbing alarmingly.

      She knew she’d been loud enough. It was just the shock that she’d called him out on his lie. Usually, when the excuses started flowing, when suitors were seeking to make their escape from her presence, Sara simply let them. It was too embarrassing to make any sort of protest, but her heart couldn’t take it anymore. She had things to give the right man — sparkling conversation, unending kindness and loyalty, and the most delicious meals he’d ever eat. But she could never so much as get her foot in the door once she met a suitor. He couldn’t see a single thing past her ample girth.

      There aren’t any business ventures, she said again, happy to repeat it. You’re no more concerned with having a fortune than I am. That’s the whole reason you’re here, isn’t it, because of my family’s name?

      That Adam’s apple would bob right out of his throat if he weren’t careful.

      I don’t have the slightest … the slightest idea what you’re talking about, he managed to say before Sara plunged onward, into previously uncharted territory. It felt daring, but in a good way. She’d been waiting for more than a year for someone to take her hand in marriage, subjected to these excruciating dismissals. Surely she deserved this, deserved to make at least one suitor feel as ridiculous as she had this entire time.

      You decided that there wasn’t a business venture lucrative enough to marry me, didn’t you? Sara continued, aware that she was on a roll. You took one glance at me and decided that no amount of money was enough to have me on your arm. You don’t need to lie about it. You could at least clear the air before you leave.

      The man — she’d long forgotten his name, hadn’t bothered listening when he was introduced at the door, knowing what was to come — pushed himself back from the table and stood up. That Adam’s apple had been in motion the entire time.

      Well, not only are you unsightly, he said, throwing his napkin down on the seat of the chair, you’re rude as well. Good day.

      Unsightly. That was a new one. Sara didn’t bother getting up to see him to the door — she was sure he’d figure it out. She added another cube of sugar to her tea and dipped a cookie in it. That was better. Maybe a love of food came too easily to her, the comfort too easy. But Sara didn’t really feel like she ate more than the average woman. Both her parents were rotund, so maybe that was where it came from for her.

      But for as long as she could remember, she’d been larger, rounder than other women her age. And while her peers and former classmates from school began quickly pairing off with one another after they graduated, Sara had stayed stubbornly single — and not by choice.

      It was a phenomenon that flummoxed Sara’s mother, who was all the time casting around for eligible young bachelors to marry her daughter.

      Between her mother and her father, Sara was being rejected on a thrice-weekly basis, and it had exacted its toll. She’d lost her temper, told off a suitor, and had been slapped in the face with the truth.

      She wondered if the truth should hurt, but it didn’t. It was better than being lied to, in her opinion.

      Sara, what on earth just happened?

      Her mother and father invaded the sitting room, and Sara languidly dipped another cookie in her tea.

      It’s not going to work out, she said, crunching down on the sweet treat.

      I heard raised voices, her father said, his wrinkled forehead furrowing in further concern.

      You heard correctly, Sara said.

      Well? her mother prompted, impatient. What was the matter?

      More excuses from his end, Sara clarified. And I got tired of listening to them. So I told him to be honest and he said that I was unsightly and rude. She was leaving some things out, but that was the gist of it.

      Couldn’t you have at least tried with this one? her father groaned, sitting heavily on the couch. We’ve exhausted our resources with you, daughter. I don’t know who else to ask, or where else to look.

      I don’t see the urgency, Sara said, munching on another cookie.

      Don’t be foolish, girl, her mother said, a shrill tone to her voice. If you’re not careful, you’ll add ‘old’ to unsightly and rude!

      Really, her father said with a reproachful glare at her mother.

      Don’t you ‘really’ me, her mother cried. There isn’t a man in this town our daughter could marry! We’ve asked them all!

      Portland, Maine, really wasn’t that small a town, and Sara considered the fact that her mother, sometimes prone to hysterics, was exaggerating. But even as her mother stormed from the room, weeping, and her father heaved himself up off the couch, throwing his hands in the air and following her, Sara had an idea.

      If there was really no man in Portland who would marry her, if her parents had really exhausted their resources in ferreting out possible suitors for her, then that meant it was time to look elsewhere — outside of the town.

      Outside of the state of Maine, if need be. To somewhere she’d never been before, somewhere her family’s name wasn’t so recognizable.

      Somewhere no one knew who she was or what she looked like, who didn’t have the chance to meet her before agreeing to the union.

      It was an idea that drove Sara to engage a carriage and ride into town proper, dutifully ignoring the stares she got when she struggled a bit to get down at her destination, used to them and what they were ogling. Her weight didn’t bother her, but people’s refusal to look past it did. Why were appearances to essential to everyone? Didn’t anyone accept the fact that, given time, appearances would fade? Waistlines could expand and contract, perhaps, but faces would slowly melt into wrinkles and folds, lustrous curls would become brittle and white.

      Teeth would fall out, backs would hunch, and all that would be left was a personality that wasn’t taken into account at first, a virtual stranger.

      Sara bought all the different newspapers and publications available for sale, and clambered back into the carriage — to the gaping of strangers and familiar faces alike. She supposed she could’ve asked the driver to make the purchases for her, but what did she have to hide? If her suitors thought that their rejections of her would inspire her to become a hermit, they’d be sorely disappointed. She had no intention of hiding herself away, or fleeing.

      Truth be told, Sara was getting tired of it. The shenanigans of that last suitor — and her final opportunity to marry a Portland man, to hear her mother bemoan it — had told her that she was tired of being rejected. If marriage was in her future, then it was up to her to go out there and seize it.

      Her father had lately taken to telling her to pray for the right man to come along. Sara believed in God’s power and love, but she also believed that God wanted mankind to go out in the world and take care of their own problems. Finding a husband wasn’t something she wanted to trouble God with if she could do the legwork herself.

      That was another thing. Maybe it was good that she was out here, amassing all of this information, looking outside of Portland for a husband and not relying on her parents. Perhaps her parents were only looking for shallow, vapid fools and that was why Sara wasn’t having any luck. If she were going to have to spend the rest of her life attached to a person, she would at least like to have some sort of input on the matter.

      At home, in the privacy of her room, she spread out all of the publications over her bed and devoured them, poring over the pages — the classifieds sections, in particular. Single men — and a few women — would take out advertisements, looking for that special someone to marry because they hadn’t been able to find him or her yet, for whatever reason.

      Many of them were from men who had relocated west and were limited by geography. There just weren’t that many women in many locales out there, limiting whatever choices they might make.

      It was those advertisements Sara found herself most drawn to. She’d never considered the idea of leaving Portland until it had seemed necessary to do so, her mother whipped into a frenzy over Sara’s apparently advancing age. But now that she was reading these exotic names in print — Washington, Colorado, Oregon, California — it was becoming easier and easier to imagine herself being one of those brave women who uprooted themselves from everything they knew and moved across the country for love and marriage.

      It was downright romantic.

      Sara began writing letters to some of the ads that struck her particularly as suitable to her personality — a lonely banker in a tiny town in Oregon, a sheriff in a remote part of California, a teacher in Washington. Without either of her parents the wiser, she received responses, struck up regular correspondence with them. She was honest with them when asked to describe herself, and that ended many inquiries.

      They were always polite — maybe it was easier to be polite on paper than it was in person — eager to

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1