Summary

The narrator is introduced. Lyman Ward is an older man who is confined to a wheelchair. He has moved into his grandparents home to sort through his grandmother’s papers. Lyman wants to write a book about his grandmother’s life. She was an author and artist who settled in the West with her husband when the West was first being settled. His son Rodman is worried about his father being so far from him. They argue that Lyman needs someone to take care of him. Rodman does not think having a couple living in a cottage near the house and preparing Lyman’s dinner and helping him bathe and prepare for bed is enough assistance.

Lyman was a history professor who wrote books on the Western frontier. His wife has left him and he has become confined to a wheelchair for he has...