It was first published in Home Monthly in 1896 under the pseudonym of Elizabeth L. Seymour,[1] her cousin's name.
[2] Out in Chicago on Christmas Eve, two shabby-looking men are considering getting food after they have not been eating for days.
Crawford considers stealing the food as he cannot pay for it, but when a woman drops a parcel he gives it to her instead of running off with it.
He then walks into a house in an attempt to steal the jewellery, and his mother finds him there.
It has been argued by critic Sharon O'Brien that this rewriting of the prodigal son theme bears some resemblance to Willa Cather's own relationship with her mother.