Prologue: What my mother taught me -- Vermont memories: Nothing ever happens. Flint and fire. Old man Warner. Uncle Giles. Ann Story. The bedquilt. Almera Hawley Canfield. The heydey of the blood -- Men, women and children: The forgotten mother. Sclla and Charybdis. The reiny day, the good mother, and the brown suit. "Vive Guignol" The saint of the old seminary. Gold from Argentina. The apprentice. The murder on Jefferson Street. The biologist and his son. Sex education. A family alliance. As ye sow. Married children. The washed window -- War: "Through pity and terror ... ". In the eye of the storm. The knot-hole. Memorial day. The old soldier.