On an exploring trip up a canyon, a young boy and his cat discover the well-hidden home of a hermit who is the friend of all the animals.

Still, and like the waters, deep. A small boy named Dave and his very old cat on their walk once discover a Hermit concealed in the canyon--a Thoreauvian type who communes best with birds and with deer, disliking cities and people-noises, growing his food and reading his two books. The Bible and Shakespeare. Dave and Grandmother Cat revisit him to talk and to listen and learn or look out at the California hillscape, as The Hermit shares his story of why he is who he is. And after a while he explains why he's going to leave: ""Only change never changes""; even Grandmother Cat has grown older--it's harder for her to trip up to his cabin. Dave has a family, and a friend, Mr. Dunhill, in common with the hermit. They all appear in this wise little wisp of a story, but mostly it's the boy and the man and the cat and the outdoors. . . then the end (a non sequitur poem--"". . . Each loved and was loved, and what/ Could be wiser than that?