Anna continues to enjoy school, and she makes some new friends, although she resents the separation of boys and girls. One day at lunch, she shows a red-haired boy how to do a cartwheel. Vreneli, who often blushes when she looks at the red-haired boy, looks cross with Anna, and won’t tell her why she is upset on their walk home for lunch. Anna tells her family about what they learned about cavemen at school that morning. She asks her mother, “[D]id the cavemen really pin their furs together with safety pins?” (58). This makes her mother and father laugh uproariously.

Vreneli leaves school without Anna that afternoon and Anna sets off by herself. Soon, she realizes that a group of boys, including the red-haired boy, are following her. They start to throw gravel at her, and then their own shoes. She flees home. Mama sees them approaching and grabs one of the boys angrily. He admits that they were throwing things at Anna because they love her. Max agrees that this is the local custom. Fortunately, the boys are cowed by Mama and avoid Anna after that. Vreneli forgives Anna.