It was not quite sunset, yet the day was fading."" This is the first prophetic line of Agnes Sligh Turnbull's new-old novel which is about life at The Richlands, the farm of Jim Ryall who prefers to work it and marry Peggy rather than go to law school. Come the fall there's the corn and the apple harvest and the advent of little Jamie is not far off--but Peggy dies bearing a second child. Grief once passed, Jim is not fallow for long and there's Phoebe to take Peggy's place. Full of kind thoughts, ""jolly meals"" and foodstuffs--cake and cider and apple dumplings--but can a barbiturate work on a full stomach?