Here is a reminiscence whose theme is my family. I try to discern something of the personalities of my ancestors, along with the bare facts that I could uncover. It is a portrait of a river, a great river of memory, and its tributaries, which lie in the imagination. What is a family, anyway? It's a giant dream, a mental conception that allows a person to be strengthened against the adverse tides of the present, or to deepen present contentment and...