Summary

On Leni’s first day of school, she worries about the impression she will make, with her red hair and freckles. Mama reassures her that she will make friends, but Leni has been the new girl before. Ernt comes in from hunting and remarks that Leni looks sad. He offers her a trash bag of secondhand clothes: a shrunken wool sweater and boys’ bell-bottoms. Leni and Cora exchange a glance at the “social suicide” outfit (56). Ernt is disappointed at her lack of reaction, so Leni pretends to like them. In the too-small clothes, with a Winnie the Pooh lunchbox, she is more nervous than ever. She makes Ernt drop her off across town so she can walk to school alone.

The schoolhouse is a one-room log building with six students: Mad Earl’s granddaughters Marthe and Agnes, his teenaged grandson Axle, two young...