(back page) The automobile was about to arrive, and so was World War I, but life in Old Home Town was still pastoral. Rose Wilder Lane has recreated smalltown society of that period with a precise feeling for decorum, dress, and kitchen dialogue. Like Sherwood Anderson in Winesburg, Ohio, she presents the parameters of a community through the stories of certain memorable citizens. All of the stories are recollected by Ernestine, who grew up there. The overlay of nostalgia cannot hide some sharp observations about marriage and women's rights.