The Sweet Singer of Sycamore Township writes a poem about the evils of the automobile and the modern age, but Russell is ready to go and seize his future in the Dakotas. He is frustrated that Charlie is not ready to leave. Russell notices tension between Charlie and Glenn. Although Glenn did most of the work fixing the privy, Charlie is ungrateful. Charlie also looks down on Glenn for killing frogs in Aunt Fanny Hamline’s pond. Little Britches opens Tansy’s desk and a big puff adder pops out, terrifying her. Glenn removes the big snake. Using a small garter snake, Tansy tells Little Britches about President Roosevelt’s daughter who kept a snake as a pet. Little Britches loses her fear. Tansy worries about who broke into the school and left the snake. Lloyd teases Tansy that she’s sweet on Eugene Hammond, and Russell and Lloyd suddenly realize that Tansy is a “good-looking girl” (124).

Big, old Aunt Fanny Hamline comes to visit the school, but the wooden plank over the ditch breaks under her enormous weight leaving her stuck on her back in the soggy ditch, “spitting like a bobcat on a chain” (127).