[In A Figure of Speech, fine], strong affection based on a mutual need presents a plea for our reconsideration of today's old people. Jenny has felt an unwanted child all her thirteen years. When her "thoroughly middle-class" family starts a campaign along lines of what's best for eighty-three-year-old Grandpa, Jenny is personally wounded. She has shared most of her hours with the old man, who was alert, interested in life, and no trouble to anyone.

Details of the story are unimportant here; the point driven home with tremendous force is a painful, but proven, one—when we feel we are no longer needed, we begin to atrophy, physically and emotionally—a theory shown to be fact, repeatedly, in institutions and "old folks homes."

A pitiable attempt to regain dignity and youthful independence leads Grandpa and Jenny on a chase to recapture a bygone day—one best left to...