Summary

Young Hick arrives at the farm where she is to work as a cook, but she is told by some farmhands that the farmers do not pay their wages on time, so she runs away. She steals a hat and a bread knife. She gets on a train, thinking she will travel to her mother's sister in Chicago. Her father boards the train just as it is leaving to try to take her home, but she brandishes the knife and he jumps off.

In the next chapter, “Brother and Sister in One Body” (51), the barker from a traveling circus boards the train, and Hick decides to leave with him instead of going on to Chicago. She meets the show's “freaks” (55), “Lobster Girl” (55), “Alligator Girl” (55), and Gerry, who is “half man and half woman” (62). Gerry invites Hick...