About this story
You play Silas Lapham, deciding how much to hand over: the mineral paint under your father's hillside, the farm, the war, the first wagon-loads sold to neighbours. Your wife takes the chair the reporter forgot to offer her and keeps steering the arithmetic toward a partner nobody names aloud. He leaves with his headline. She wants a word.
Who you’ll meet
Persis Lapham, the reporter Bartley Hubbard and the two Lapham daughters. You play Silas Lapham.
How it opens
Bartley Hubbard entered your paint office carrying a notebook and practiced admiration.
Barrels, mineral samples, and bright labels supplied the background he had hoped to find.
Bartley HubbardThe Events wants the story of a representative self-made man.
Bartley HubbardReaders prefer beginnings rough enough to make success look inevitable.
Silas can provide facts without letting you arrange Providence.
Choose
Print the paint accurately and arrange the man as you please.
Begin with the farm and leave inevitability out of it.