Chapter 13

Summary

Carol goes to PerryÂ’s house to pay a courtesy call. Not finding them at home she chances upon Guy PollockÂ’s office. He invites her in. Carol hesitates remembering the way people gossip. Yet she goes in and finds that his office serves as the living quarters too. It is meagerly furnished. Guy is surprised that Carol should call on the Perrys. Carol informs him that she wanted PerryÂ’s ideas as to how Gopher Prairie could be changed. This leads to a discussion of what is wrong with Gopher Prairie. Much to CarolÂ’s disappointment Guy Pollock does not find anything wrong with it. He feels that the people of Gopher Prairie are as suspicious and righteous, as the people living in any other small town. In his opinion the people of Gopher Prairie are in fact friendlier than the people of many other small towns.

He tells Carol about how he was brought up in a similar small town in Ohio, which was more hostile than Gopher Prairie. He completed his education disliking the crowded, expensive New York. When he heard that Julius Flickerbaugh, the lawyer of Gopher Prairie needed a partner he came and settled down in the town ever since. He also reveals that once upon a time he had resolved to read Browning and go to the theaters at Minneapolis. But actually he had settled down to read only cheap fiction and going to Minneapolis only when his work demanded it.

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