Summary

Chapter 6, titled "Speedwell," returns to Tom's first person narration as London fades into the distance and he begins to miss everything about his life as a Third Class Apprentice in London. What he misses most is the food, as there is none out in the wasteland they travel, with the exception of a frog Hester catches and eats. Hester talks about her mother used to called Traction Cities stupid, because there used to be a reason for them a thousand years ago when the earth was in turmoil but now people are now too stupid to stop them. Tom enjoys it when she speaks, even if these are Anti-Tractionist views.

They stop for the night and Hester begins telling Tom about her past in a static settlement on Oak Island. Her mother Pandora, was a Historian and one night seven years...