Summary
Chapter 61
This chapter contrasts a rich family and a poor family. First, Herriot visits a rich, unhappy family. They have a dog with rheumatoid arthritis, which Herriot is able to treat successfully. Mrs. Tavener and her daughter Julia seem to be constantly disapproving of Mr. Tavener—they even blame him for their dog’s arthritis, which is in no way his fault. Herriot also notices Mr.Tavener’s shaking hands and speculates that he could be an alcoholic. Right before Herriot leaves, the mother and daughter leave to go to town, and the daughter gives Mr. Tavener a look full of disdain.
Herriot then visits a poor but happy family to treat their pig. Herriot thinks about how hard-working the Altons are, especially the father of the family. As Herriot leaves, he sees the daughter, Jennie, outside—she is on her way to buy her father Guinness in town, as a surprise, so he can drink it with his dinner. Herriot observes the look full of love that Jennie gives her father before she leaves. When Herriot reviews the two families lives in his mind, he realizes he’d prefer the life of the Altons, if he were given the choice.
Chapter 62
Herriot and Helen go on their second date. They plan to see a Scottish film at the local cinema, but a western movie is played instead, a last-minute change. In the cinema, a man chastises Herriot for incorrectly diagnosing one of his animals, but Herriot cannot remember who the man is. Then, a drunk man enters the theater and falls asleep right next to Herriot and Helen. Eventually, Helen is so tickled by the whole situation that she lets out a huge laugh. At the end of the date, Helen suggests that they go for a walk on their next date. Herriot is extremely happy that there will be a “next time.”
Chapter 63
Siegfried is offered the opportunity to meet with people who could offer him work as a veterinarian for the horse races. Siegfried accepts the meeting with these two powerful men and their wives, and asks Herriot to come along. Siegfried dresses up and looks very handsome and charming. At the race course, Siegfried bumps into Stewie, a vet he knows from college; Siegfried, Herriot, and Stewie go off to get a drink together.
Chapter 64
While having lunch and drinks with Stewie, Siegfried loses track of time. After two hours, Siegfried realizes everyone else has left the bar and the racetrack is closing. When they all go out to Siegfried’s car, the men from Racing Circuit and their wives are standing by his car, and they are angry at him for making them wait. Siegfried then realizes he has lost his car keys, and Herriot notes that Siegfried is quite drunk. Siegfried's friend, Stewie, offers them all a ride in his car, but his car is small and has no seats inside. Eventually, one of the men starts the engine of Siegfried’s car without the key, and declares that he will drive. Siegfried, trying to recover his image, says he will clean off the windshield; but, in his drunken state, he tries to clean the windshield with a dead hen. A few weeks later, Siegfried reads that another man got the job as the veterinarian of the Racing Circuit. Siegfried is not disappointed that he has made a terrible impression on the vets, as he feels he would have been miserable doing that job.
Chapter 65
Herriot and Helen grow closer. Herriot feels that Helen’s father does not like him, but he goes to see Helen regularly, regardless. Siegfried urges Herriot to propose to Helen before someone else does. He offers to let them both move in upstairs if they get married. With Siegfried’s encouragement, Herriot asks Helen to marry him. She says yes. They are optimistic about the future, but Helen reminds Herriot that he must discuss the matter with her father.
Chapter 66
Herriot bathes after a particularly smelly day of work and decides to use Mrs. Hall’s bath salts to get rid of the smell. After sleeping for a few hours, he receives an early morning call to go to Helen’s farm to help deliver a calf. Herriot is nervous because he knows the cow is a favorite of Mr. Alderson’s. While Herriot prepares to examine the cow, he takes off his shirt, and Mr. Alderson and the other farm helpers give Herriot a funny look because of his feminine smell.
After the calf is successfully delivered, Herriot tells Mr. Alderson that he plans to marry Helen. Mr. Alderson invites Herriot in for a drink, and, after a few drinks, he begins to open up. Mr. Alderson tells Herriot that he misses his deceased wife. After a few hours, Mr. Alderson is so drunk that Herriot has to help him upstairs. Herriot feels that they are beginning to get along, and is optimistic.
Chapter 67
It is Herriot and Helen’s honeymoon, which, inconveniently, falls during tuberculosis-testing time in a nearby town, Ellerthorpe. Siegfried gives Herriot a hard time for rushing into marriage, and won’t listen to Herriot’s protests that it was Siegfried who had encouraged him to marry soon. Siegfried could test all the cattle by himself, but Herriot offers to help with the testing, even though Siegfried feels a little guilty about it. Herriot feels it will be a good honeymoon because Helen and he can stay at a nice local inn, drive around, and enjoy the scenery. After the wedding, Herriot discovers that Siegfried has hung a sign out in front of Skeldale House listing Herriot’s name: he has made Herriot a full partner in the veterinary practice, a very prestigious position.
Helen and Herriot spend their honeymoon driving to local farms, where Herriot introduces her to the farmers, and she assists in recording the test results. He is very happy that she is his wife.
Analysis
A key message in the novel is that wealth is not always needed to find happiness. Typically, the lives of the poor are characterized by hardship and suffering, while the wealthy experience ease and happiness. However, Chapter 61 inverts these characterizations. In this chapter, the Alton family is poor but family-orientated and joyful, whereas the rich Tavener family is miserable. Through this contrast, the author suggests that money does not bring true happiness. Instead, happiness is forged through a person's connections with others. The author suggests that support and a closely knit family is one key to true happiness, supporting the theme of human relationships, and highlighting how important relationships are for Herriot.
Chapters 63 and 64 contain one last comic episode to demonstrate Siegfried’s eccentricity: Herriot observes Siegfried ruin his chances to become a vet for the Racing Circuit, a prestigious position at the local horse-racing track. This episode demonstrates the theme of leisure and culture: the high culture of the men of the Racing Circuit is contrasted with the working class culture of the people who place bets on the horses, like Siegfried’s friend Stewie. The men of the Racing Circuit, the Colonel and the General, have an “almost tangible aura of authority which comes from a lifetime of demand” (411), and seem very stern and well-put together, “their bowlers pointing rigidly to the front” (412). In contrast, Stewie, who is poor but very kind, is presented as messy, and comically out of place when presented to the Racing Circuit men: “[Stewie] smiled sweetly through a faint dew of perspiration. I noticed that he had made a lopsided job of buttoning the navy nap overcoat; there was a spare button hole at the top and a lack of alignment at the bottom. It made the straining, tortured garment look even more grotesque” (418). This contrast highlights the disparity between the aristocracy and the working class during this time period. It also serves to illustrate that, for Siegfried, human relationships are worth more than prestige, as he is much more interested in passing time with Stewie than with the cold, rigid Colonel and General.
The theme of human relationships continues in Herriot’s second date with Helen; this date is far more optimistic than their first, and foreshadows their marriage. Their second date is characterized by laughter, rather than silence. When Herriot first sees Helen at the cinema, she “smiled and waved cheerfully” and “her eyes were bright.” This causes Herriot to become extremely optimistic, claiming “This was going to be a good night – nothing was going to spoil it” (402). Although things don’t go exactly as planned, his prediction does turn out to be correct, with Helen promising there would be a “next time.”
Herriot’s calving of the Alderson’s cow serves as a fitting episode for the penultimate chapter of the book. Herriot and Helen have agreed to get married, and Herriot must tell Helen’s father, Mr. Alderson. Herriot successfully helps birth a calf from Mr. Alderson’s favorite cow, and he chooses this moment to give Mr. Alderson the news. Birth is a motif throughout the novel for the optimism that comes with new beginnings. Herriot begins the novel birthing a calf, symbolic of Herriot’s beginning as a vet. Here, the novel comes full circle with another birth. Although the birth is not easy, it is also not quite as challenging as the birth in Chapter 1. This time around, Herriot has more practical knowledge, is more confident in his abilities, and is able to quickly help fix the problem and birth the cow. This birth, like all live births that Herriot is a part of, has the magic that Herriot loves: “it was like something out of Disney” (431), and Mr. Alderson, too, is “enchanted.” This happy birth foreshadows Mr. Alderson’s positive reaction to Herriot’s desire to marry Helen.
Finally, the events at the end of the novel—Herriot and Helen’s marriage, and Herriot becoming a full partner of Siegfried’s practice—provide a fitting conclusion to the text. Herriot feels the satisfaction of having achieved full partnership status as a vet; he has completed the coming-of-age that he began at the start of the novel. Now, he states proudly, “I was a partner, a man with a real place in the world” (439).
Herriot’s growth as a professional and as a person is paralleled in his attitudes about the landscape, expressed in Herriot’s descriptions of the natural world around him. Unlike at the beginning, when the landscape and climate are so harsh and cold that it was almost attacking him, as in Chapter 1: “On the moor it was still dark and a bitter wind whipped over the snow, stinging my eyes” (7). In contrast, the imagery in Chapter 67 conveys the utter happiness that he feels: “I became aware suddenly of the vast, swelling glory of the Dales around us, and of the Dales scent of clover and warm grass, more intoxicating than any wine. And it seemed that my first two years at Darrowby had been leading up to this moment” (441). The images here paint a warm picture of the place that Herriot has come to call home. The landscape no longer overwhelms him; instead, it provides him joy. These last events of the novel illustrate how, by persevering through a series of challenging situations, Herriot receives great reward.
