"Billy Gibbs was as lively a boy no doubt as he could have been made by a strong body, excellent health, an active mind, and an alert sense of humor much like that of his father Grover Gibbs. Like about all the Port William boys of his time, his life was not as leisurely as he wished tit to be. From the time he grew from the intelligence of a coon hound to that of a fairly biddable border collie, his parents, who were often in need of help, found work for him to do. This occasioned his next significant intellectual advance: recognition of the advantages of making himself hard to find. For the next several years, however, his parents, Beulah and Grover, were better at finding him than he was at hiding. From the time of their marriage in 1920 until Beulah inherited her parents’ little farm in 1948, they were tenant farmers, and Billy was always under some pressure to earn his keep. Needing to work, for a boy of sound faculties, naturally increases the attractiveness of not working, and Billy’s mind was perfectly sound." Originally published in The Threepenny Review, Fall 2018. This edition hand-printed by Gray Zeitz with wood engravings by Joanne Price.