The story is about Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States. He has died and woken up in the body of a horse. The story is broken into section headers that reveal various details about life on the farm.

“The Girl”

This section starts with, “The girl is back. She stands silhouetted against the sunshine, the great Barn doors thrown open. Wisps of newly mown hay lift and scatter. Light floods into the stalls” (113). The girl is the niece of the farmer who owns the barn, and she is feeding Rutherford peaches. He is licking her hand in a sort of Morse code, attempting to tell her his true identity.

“Rebirth”

When Rutherford:

woke up inside the horse’s body, he was tied to a stout flag post. He couldn’t focus his new eyes. He was wearing blinders. A flag was whipping above him, but Rutherford was tethered so tightly to the post that he couldn’t twist his neck to count the stars (114).

He says he was terrified of the sound of his own huge heart, and of the man “with a prim mustache and a mean slouch” who spurred his sides. At first he thinks this man must be the devil, but then the man gives him “a gentle ear-scratch and an amber cube of sugar,” which makes Rutherford wonder if the man is God (114).