Can't remember the title of this book...A widow in late 1800's or early 1900's lives in a town that has a rule that all widowed women have to be married within a certain time frame. If the women can't make their choice, the town will choose for them. It's all for the good of the town and, they say, to make sure their women are taken care of. This widow has a farm and land from her husband who has been dead for about a year (?) and it's time for her to choose. A brash, brutish man wants to marry her for her farm, and as he is the only one so far that has offered (because he runs everyone else off), it looks like the town is going to tell the widow she has to marry him. In the meantime, the widow has a neighbor who is mentally slow helping her take care of her farm. He is a good, strong, caring person. He lives with his sisters but helps out on the widow's farm (he has also come to care for her). The men of the town makes fun of and pulls pranks on him because of his mental slowness. They like him, but thinks he isn't good for much. To thwart the town choosing for her, she chooses her neighbor and he agrees. This stuns the town and brute, but it is her choice and she is allowed to marry him.