After Greeley once again fails to understand the humor in one of John's cartoons, John quits his job with The Manhattanite and returns home, where he begins to wonder what he'll do for money now. He settles on playing the stock market and fantasizes about a meeting with J.P. Morgan.

When Phil gives in to his son's wishes because of feelings of guilt, John chastises him for being weak, but when John himself misses a picnic he'd planned to take with Lydia, he imagines the negative consequences of his forgetfulness by conjuring up three possible Lydias of the future, none of them better off for his neglect.