A Worn Path

"A Worn Path" is a short story by Eudora Welty first published in The Atlantic Monthly (February 1941). It is about an elderly African American woman who undertakes a familiar journey on a road in a rural area to acquire medicine for her grandson. She expresses herself, both to her surroundings and in short spurts of spoken monologue, warning away animals and expressing the pain she feels in her weary bones.