Plot Summary
The Silent Boy is told by Katy Thatcher, an old woman in 1987, about a critical period in her life from 1908 to 1911. Katy, whose father is a community doctor, dreams of becoming a doctor herself. Katy takes an interest in Jacob, a “touched” boy from a neighboring farm, who can't speak, but somehow hums quietly to himself, and seems able to communicate with animals. Jacob occasionally comes to the Thatcher home to be in the barn with the animals. Katy shares Jacob’s love of animals and comes to feel she can communicate with him in a rudimentary but empathetic way.
When Nell, the sister of Jacob, has a baby out of wedlock by Paul Bishop, Jacob is aware of the trouble. He abducts and brings the baby to the Thatcher's house on a stormy night, hoping to save it the way he has saved orphaned lambs by bringing them to a substitute mother. But it doesn't go the way he had planned it to. Later, Katy marries Austin Bishop and becomes a doctor. 50 years later the Asylum closed and Jacob was never seen again. There were no records of him there.
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