Daisy

While the Graves family is living a peaceful suburban life in Islip, they try to be as good as they can to the unemployed beggars who have found themselves out of work in the postwar economy, especially those who have been in the service. Daisy is the thirteen-year-old daughter of one of those men. To save the trouble of worrying about her on the road, the Graves take Daisy into their house, offering to adopt her.

Daisy, as Graves puts it, "was not a success." She is big and coarse and awkward, unwilling to go to school; she argues with children her own age and is homesick for life on the road. When hobos come around asking for handouts, she chases them away, knowing better than the Graves which ones are able-bodied but unwilling to work. The next time that her father passes through town, he takes Daisy...