"Wild Oats is the stroy of Jedwin Sparrow and Cora Briggs, a divorcee. Cora, an orphan, married Luther Briggs, never realizing that he didn't love her. When Luther abandons Cora to go live with his Cherokee wife and children, rather than pine after him, she files for divorce. Of course, Cora earns a horrible reputation. Jedwin, on the other hand, is a mortitian, taking after his father, and running the family funeral parlor.
Jedwin decides that the time has come for him to sow his 'wild oats' and to have his first dalliance--he's a virgin. However, Cora has no interest in becoming his mistress--for her reputation as a light-skirt is ill deserved. Thus Jedwin visits her hoping to enter into a liason, and finds that she will have nothing of the sort. She tells him that what she wants is romance, and believing he will just leave after she tells him this, is surprised when he agrees to court her.
Jedwin's mother despises Cora and is good friends with Mrs. Briggs, Luther's mother, Cora's ex-mother-in-law. Thus the story unfolds with a conflict within Jedwin to hide his developing relationship with Cora from his mother. He works in the funeral parlor all day and at night works on the chores, such as fixing the fence, painting the barn, etc., for Cora. It all blows up in their faces, however, when the local minister comes around to see these new things being done around the house, and it becomes evident that Cora has enlisted the help of a man to assist her in the household chores.
Cora, who has never been accepted by the people of the town because of her sullied reputation is further looked down upon and outcast because of her status as a mistress to someone in the town. Jedwin continues to court Cora, falling desperately in love with her, and she does the same. Cora realizes that because she loves Jedwin so much, she can't allow him to lose his good name and to damage his relationship with his mother to be with her. "
Kayla Reno, Resident Scholar
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