"Perhaps the most atypical of the author's works, the play presents a sentimental tale of youthful indiscretion in a turn-of-the-century New England town.

"[1] The title derives from Quatrain XII of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (5th edition, 1889), one of Richard's favorite poems: Theatre Guild Producer Philip Moeller Director Robert Edmond Jones Scenic Designer

[3] In a review of a 1998 production of the play at The Huntington Theatre in Boston, the reviewer noted O'Neill, who "penned [it] in a single month in 1932, the Harvard educated playwright takes a well deserved vacation from this cold and unrelenting world, and gives us a surprisingly warm portrayal of middle-class family life in "large small-town America.""

[5] Additional one-hour radio adaptations were performed on the Theatre Guild on The Air on October 7, 1945,[6] Studio One on July 15, 1947,[7] and the Ford Theater on November 2, 1947.

[9] The story was also made into the 1959 Broadway musical Take Me Along starring Jackie Gleason as the drunken Uncle Sid (Beery's role in the film), Walter Pidgeon as Nat and Robert Morse as Richard.