Chapter One Summary

Ginny attends her first Pentecostal church service with her father. The preacher is the son of the Pentecostal preacher Pa remembers from his time in prison. The regular Baptist preacher in town claims that these Pentecostal revivals, or brush arbor services, are just rot and that anyone who attends them may lose their letters at the Baptist church, but Ginny's Pa doesn't care. He wants his family to experience the Spirit first hand. The family all loads in up their wagon to head down to the revival: Pa, Ginny, her siblings Florrie and Joe, and Joe's girlfriend, Lily.

At the church service, Ginny claims that she only wants to observe and that there's no way she'll be one of those women that rolls around on the ground. This statement has two meanings - she doesn't believe in the Spirit possessing a...