Chapter 2 Summary

Since Jim and Anna Holbrook have made the decision to leave in the spring and start a new life, they must save all winter so they will have the money to move. This is hard, since they are already desperately poor. Anna begs around town and gets the superintendent's family to hire her to do some extra cleaning and washing, for fifty cents a day. She also has to try to find ways of saving money on household expenses. She makes winter coats for the children out of an old quilt, and feeds them nothing but fatback and cornmeal, and she stops using soap when she washes their clothes. Jim no longer goes to the bar on payday, but spends every evening with his family, no longer hitting his children. The kids, who are used to their parents being angry and violent, are...