This chapter's epigraph comes from a famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow's poem, "Old Man and His Burden," is about a man who has lost his way and is now on the brink of death. He is overcome with grief at the loss of his life, but he is comforted by the memory of his father, who is still alive, and by the thought that his father will soon be reunited with him.