The girls spend a week preserving vegetables and jelly to make up for the time they will be away. Mama sits in the darkened front room when Everett comes to call that week. She wonders aloud to Rosie if his pallor means he has been in jail.

The night before they are to leave for Chicago, Lottie and Rosie lie in bed talking. Rosie is frightened, recalling a time when she had stage fright at age six. She wishes she could stay “tucked in right here at home” (43) where she is safe from strangers, but she won’t admit it. She tries to summon her spunkiness, recalling a past “scrap or two in the schoolyard” (42). Mama comes into the room to say that Aunt Euterpe is old-fashioned and they will have to mind her rules.

Mama says she worries more about the sisters than Buster, adding, “Give me boys anytime” because “you know where you stand” with them (44). Lottie remarks that Mama will be there to correct them if they step out of line, and Mama says she isn’t going with them. She has sent her ticket back to Euterpe, even though Dad wanted her to go.