Watch With Me and Six Other Stories of the Yet-Remembered Ptolemy Proudfoot and His Wife, Miss Minnie, Née Quinch. New York: Pantheon, 1994.

Also collected in That Distant Land: The Collected Stories. Washington, D. C.: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004.

From the back cover:

Rich with humor and wisdom, these seven interrelated stories highlight the depth of affection and tolerance for eccentricity that the residents of Wendell Berry's fictional community of Port William, Kentucky, bear toward one another. Berry describes the comic and often poignant ways these lively characters cope with the intrusions of the twentieth century into their idyllic, agrarian world.

"Wendell Berry writes with a good husbandman's care and economy ... His stories are filled with gentle humor." New York Times Book Review

"Berry is the master of earthy country living seen through the eyes of laconic farmers ... He makes his stories shine with meaning and warmth." Christian Science Monitor

Cover: Detail from a painting by Paul Starret Sample (1896-1974). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1937 (37.60.1). 210 pages.

Contents:

A Consent
A Half-Pint of Old Darling
The Lost Bet
Nearly to the Fair
The Solemn Boy
Turn Back the Bed
Watch with Me

First Sentence:

Ptolemy Proudfoot was nothing if not a farmer.