The situation in this story by Eudora Welty is that the grandmother of a sickly little boy has to walk for miles through the woods to reach the town hospital and acquire the necessary medicine for her ailing grandson.  On her way she comes across a hunter from whom she steels a nickel, although she seems to regret this when thinking about it later.  When she finally arrives at the hospital and gets her medicine, the lady behind the desk gives her a nickel because it is Christmastime and the grandmother says she will use it to buy a toy windmill for her grandson. The main theme of the story is endurance because the old lady could have turned back at any time but instead she kept going until she finally reached her destination.  The story has a sympathetic tone which makes the reader feel sad for the grandmother about her grandson, and makes it feel important for her to succeed in getting the medicine so that he will get better.  “A Worn Path” explores the ontological questions “what is love and how important is money?”