Summary Of Where The Rivers Flow North By Howard Frank Mosher

The book Where the Rivers Flow North by Howard Frank Mosher is a great “back in the day” Vermont based book that is filled with amazing stories. The short story First Snow shows us how neighbors interacted back when the law really did not matter as much as it does today. It reminded me of a story I heard from my grandfather, back when he owned an Agway store. He told me that one night an employee of his shot an illegal deer at night. My grandfather really needed this person to work the next day so he decided to take the deer off his hands and put it in the garage at the store so that the employee would not get caught and be unable to work the next day. Although while having the deer in the back of his truck it came alive! So, my grandfather had to pull over onto the side of the road on the way to the shop and finish the job off of killing the illegal deer. The story really connects to my grandfather’s story because of how the laws were there but not at the same time. In Mosher’s story the main character does not tell the game warden who killed the deer and who
knows if the warden even came to get the deer. The next short story that Mosher shows us how things were back in 20th century Vermont is in High Water.
In the story the character Waterman is a gear-head and loves to race his old car up in Canada. He takes the 49’ Chevy truck and loads his car onto the bed to take across the border. I have heard that back in the day racing cars was something that my grandfather liked to watch and would go to New York to watch them on the dusty dirt track. It was quite an event and an excuse to get off the farm that he owed where he had multiple horses that absolutely loved him. Also, back to the piece about laws not being enforced very strictly, Waterman was able to drive his loud race car with no lights all the way from their broken down truck for a long ride up to the track without getting pulled over or in trouble. If a person was to do that nowadays there would be some hefty tickets and fines to go along with
it. In the Novella, Mosher shows us life in 20th century Vermont by talking about the true meaning of horsepower, an actual workhorse. All we now use are machines but back in the day people had to actually use things with heart beats instead of engines. Everything in the novel has reminded me of the legacy of my grandfather in my family. He loved horses and we all think he loved them more than his family members. People lose track of the things that are meaningful like something as simple as being able to use a horse for things like logging, sugaring, and plowing but instead use heavy machinery that can destroy the earth with harmful emissions.