"Schopenhauer on Lake Pepin: A Study"

• Originally appeared in Good Company, IV, No. 2 (1879), 91-107. Reprinted in Knitters in the Sun. 
• McMichael: "The story suggested that it was dangerous to flout society's rules, that men who followed ideals impractically would suffer, and it reflected the rise of the social gospel that was bringing the establishment of settlement houses and the social Christianity of General Booth and the Salvation Army's 'slum brigades'" (p. 72).
• McMichael: "The story was ample evidence that she had yet to develop her talents much beyond a reportorial capacity to present events and scenes" (p. 73).

Basic Plot: 

The Berkelys are on a steamboat and land on the shore of Lake Pepin, where they meet up with a hermit. The man was once a church going man, but he turned away from faith and toward philosophy. His wife and son died of diptheria and he adopted his daughter out to relatives. 

Ethel Berkely convinces the hermit that what matters is "good works." Years later, she finds out he died of yellow fever in Mississippi where he had gone to volunteer to help those who were ill.