Chapter Three Summary

Ethan watches his wife sleep, and knows from previous conversations that she goes to sleep quickly and never dreams. On the other hand, he fights sleep and when he does succumb, dreams busily all night. He lies there in bed on the Good Friday night, reviewing the events of the day. He cannot fall asleep, slips out of the bedroom, dresses in the kitchen, and goes out for a walk in the night.

He thinks about the town, and of his family. He calls himself and his father "ancestor people", as they both learned heritage lessons at the knee of Ethan's grandfather. Ethan thinks of Mary, who he met in Boston before shipping out for the War, and she wrote to him constantly. He thinks she has now tired of making the best of a bad situation.

As Ethan walks, he...