Summary

When Lila first starts tending the Reverend's garden, she starts small, but it grows once she becomes his wife. Sometimes, she dreams of running away into the woods with their son to have him to herself and to teach him that way of life, but it is just a dream because she knows how sad that would make her husband, and she is fond of the beautiful old man. Still, Lila cannot help her strange thoughts, and she constantly waits for him to change his mind and tell her to leave.

After Reverend Ames and his friend, Reverend Boughton, discuss souls one Saturday evening, Lila begins to worry about Doll's soul, and wanting to avoid Heaven if Doll will not be there, Lila slips off to the river early the next morning to wash the baptism off of her in the river...