Marian is a 14-year-old girl intent on earning points toward Campfire Girl badges. She wears a red coat and a pointed white cap like “all the little girls were wearing that year” (137). She has straight yellow hair that hangs loosely around her face. Carrying a potted plant, she visits the “Old Ladies’ Home.” Before entering, she pauses to notice the “prickly dark shrubs” outside (137). As she proceeds slowly toward the building, she shifts the pot from hand to hand, then sets it down and removes her mittens to open the heavy door.

Upon entry, Marian tells the nurse who greets her she needs to visit an old lady. She doesn’t reveal the visit would provide three points toward her Campfire Girl score. The nurse asks if she knows any of the residents, and Marian says she does not but that any of them would do. The narrator says that she tucks her yellow hair behind her ear as she does when studying science. The visit is another rote task in Marian’s daily life.

Marian visits two elderly women in the home, and she’s stunned by their physical condition as well as the living quarters. She shows little compassion for the women.