The narrator’s family enjoys trips to the countryside in a horse-drawn carriage with their family friends, the Donalds. Dr. Donald and the narrator’s father are both landowners. On the country drives, the narrator likes to look at the houses, which are modest in comparison to his city dwellings. He thinks of the differences between Cletus’s rural upbringing and his own more urban background.

The narrator reflects on the history of Logan County (which includes Lincoln). Settlers passed land on to heirs who increasingly owned but did not farm their properties. He notes that landowners enjoy higher social status than tenant farmers. But these social considerations never occurred to the narrator and Cletus when they played together as friends.

In the present, the narrator wishes he could explain himself to Cletus but admits Cletus probably would not remember him. The only place he can connect with him is in the past. He acknowledges that his story will be a mix of fact and fiction. He asks the reader to imagine a deck of cards. Each card is a fragment of Cletus’s life. Envisioning the past will be like turning over one card at a time.

His first invention is a dog for Cletus.