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What happens when the courage to believe must become the courage to act at home?
In The Chautauqua Girls at Home, Pansy follows young women as they return from Chautauqua to ordinary life. The summer gatherings bring study, worship and self-improvement. Now their ideals meet the demands of home, church and neighborhood, where belief becomes a matter of daily choices.
Friendship gives these questions a human shape. The young women differ in temperament, background and habits. They encourage one another, disagree and sometimes disappoint each other. Shaped by Protestant Christian faith, Pansy's story asks how people live out their convictions when courage means facing everyday responsibilities rather than danger.
What you’ll discover
- Conviction close to home Explore what cherished ideals mean in a kitchen, a church and a neighborhood.
- Friendship with its differences Follow a circle of young women whose different habits bring encouragement and disappointment.
- The courage of daily choices Consider a quieter kind of bravery, rooted in the effort to live what you believe.
- The Chautauqua connection Enter a story shaped by summer gatherings devoted to study, worship and self-improvement.
- Faith put into practice See how Pansy places Christian convictions within the familiar demands of ordinary life.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like warm, old-fashioned stories about friendship, church life and young women finding their purpose.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Conviction still needs a first step
- Flossy earns trust through honesty
- Marion admits her failure to Gracie
- Flossy finds courage in a hymn
- Eurie practices patience amid household disorder
- Plain words clear away suspicion
- Freedom includes responsibility for others
- Willingness needs understanding and preparation
- Ordinary rooms put sincerity to work
Who’s who
- Flossy ShipleyA gentle, fashionable girl whose shyness hides surprising firmness, she wants to teach a rough class of boys and live honestly at home.
- Ruth ErskineA cool, proud young woman of wealth who wants useful work but does not know how to speak to people about faith.
- Marion WilburA sharp-tongued schoolteacher with no family nearby, she wants to prove her new faith is real and to help her pupils.
- Eurie MitchellThe doctor's quick, humorous eldest daughter, she wants to belong in church and keep her cheer through a crowded household.
- Dr. DennisThe gloomy pastor of First Church, he fears the four girls at first and longs for a congregation that will truly work.
- Colonel BakerA charming family friend who expects Flossy's company as always and cannot understand why she has changed.
- Rich JohnsonThe clever leader of Flossy's boys' class, he has watched church people for years and wants someone who lives what she says.
- Gracie DennisThe pastor's bright, proud daughter, she longs for a mother or sister and finds a friend in Marion.
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The Chautauqua Girls at Home
by Pansy · 1877
Four friends walk into Sunday school feeling unwelcome, until a rowdy class gives Flossy an unexpected chance to teach.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
In short
What happens when four fashionable young women come home from a summer assembly and try to live what they now believe? On a bright Sunday in August, they gather in their familiar church, too shy to climb the stairs to Sunday school.
The Chautauqua Girls at Home at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 30 min4 h 25 min fast, 6 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 78,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1877by Pansy
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Four girls hesitate at the Sunday school door
The story begins on the last Sunday of August, the first the four friends have spent at home since Chautauqua. Their church now looks new to them. It is a place where they mean to worship.
Their faces give nothing away. Ruth sits in silk, Flossy looks like the same airy butterfly, Marion is the weary teacher with a name for unbelief, and Eurie is the doctor's careless daughter. Dr. Dennis assumes they have come to ridicule. In fact all four listen to his sermon with shining eyes.
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Details
- First published
- 1877
- Language
- English
- Level
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Cite this edition
Pansy. The Chautauqua Girls at Home. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chautauqua-girls-at-home.
Pansy. (2026). The Chautauqua girls at home. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chautauqua-girls-at-home (Original work published 1877)
Pansy. The Chautauqua Girls at Home. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chautauqua-girls-at-home.
@book{pansy2026chautauqua,
author = {Pansy},
title = {The Chautauqua Girls at Home},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-chautauqua-girls-at-home},
note = {First published 1877}
}
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What is The Chautauqua Girls at Home about?
It follows four young women who return from the Chautauqua summer meeting determined to live their new faith. They face church life, family opposition and social customs in their own city, learning through small trials what their beliefs require.
Who are the Chautauqua girls?
They are Flossy Shipley, a gentle and fashionable girl, Ruth Erskine, a wealthy and proud one, Marion Wilbur, a sharp-minded schoolteacher, and Eurie Mitchell, the doctor's lively eldest daughter. Their friendship grows through shared trials.
What is Chautauqua in this book?
Chautauqua was a summer assembly in the woods, held for Sunday school workers, with lectures, music and Bible study. The four girls attend for two weeks, and the book begins after they return and look at home with new eyes.
The author
Pansy
American religious novelist
Pansy was the pen name of Isabella Macdonald Alden (1841–1930), an American writer. She was born in Rochester, New York, and died in Palo Alto, California. She wrote Christian novels and books for children during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including The Chautauqua Girls at Home.
“Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
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