In this domestic epic, a man and a woman converse on the porch of their farmhouse. The manhas just
returned home in the evening
andhis wife meets him at the door to warn him that Silas, the old never-do-well hired hand, has
returned home.
Silas looked terribly ill, yet he didn't ask for help. Instead he told her that he would cut the upper pasture and he kept inquiring about the college boy he had worked with on the farm a few years back. He and the boy hadargued all the time, now the old man wanted to make things right.
The husband refused to take Silas back as the old man had walked away too many times.Nobody could depend on him to stay and finish a job when 'someone' came to him and offered him a little pocket money to go
elsewhere. As Silas' brotherwas the President of a bank why didn't he go and ask him for help? At last the husbandkeptquiet andwent in to see the old man, whowas probably asleep beside the stove. A few minutes later he returned to his wife. When his wife questioned him , he just answered '
dead'.
The hired hand had returned 'home' to die. Though his rich brother ought to have provided him a home, Silas felt more at home with the farm couple who had supported him over the years.
Despite his initial refusal, it looked as if Warren (the farmer)would have to take his old hand in, though Silas had done nothing to deserve it. Of course, when the moment of truth arrived, Silaswas already dead.
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