The country people are isolated, but town dwellers have easy access to the outside world. Traveling salesmen come in by train every weekend, and they gather at the Boys’ Home Hotel to listen to music and tell stories. The trains also bring musicians such as Blind d’Arnault. The townspeople enjoy news and culture by traveling only a short distance from home, whereas country people, who would have to journey for miles, are cut off from these luxuries. Notice that winter does not deprive Jim and the girls of a night out, but remember that when they were living on the farm, the Burdens had a homemade Christmas because a blizzard kept Jake from going to town to shop.
In this section, we learn that Lena is not as artificial and shallow as she at first appeared to be. She counsels Chris to buy the handkerchief with their mother’s initial on it because it will please her, and she confides in Jim that she misses her family. This is proof that underneath her china-doll facade, she is warmhearted and sensitive. We also learn something of the Lingard family; little Chris, who works at a cold, hard job and desperately needs an overcoat, shows his generosity when he spends his money on Christmas presents for his mother and six younger siblings.
In this section, Cather contrasts the cold outside with the warmth inside in several ways. For example, note how the children, hungry for beauty, huddle outside the Methodist Church to watch the crude blues and reds in the stained glass windows. Another example of a pocket of warmth amidst the cold of winter is the circle of camaraderie in the Harling home. In addition, the dreariness of winter is relieved by the appearance of Blind d’Arnault. Nearly every color adjective used to describe this man is related to yellow, a warm color: yellow fingers, gold watch, topaz ring, yellow man, and a gold-headed cane. He is also called an “African god of pleasure, full of strong, savage blood.” The cold drabness of winter serves as backdrop against which shines the brilliance of d’Arnault and his emotional piano performance.
We are reminded of Jim’s southern background when he comments that Blind d’Arnault’s face is the happiest he has seen since he left Virginia. We are also reminded of the newness of the small-town atmosphere of Black Hawk. In one sentence, Cather calls to mind much that has already happened in the story.
