The History of Them All: Chapters 48-52 Summary

In Chapter 48, the narrator is still in F.'s tree house, singing Hit Parade songs as the weather gets cold. He thinks about F.'s many happy dalliances and wonders why he could not have inherited F.'s memories instead of his possessions. Instead, he is yearning after a long-dead religious figure. He talks about the practices of Catholic missionaries in the Canadian wilderness and wonders what Catherine Tekakwitha's body looks like today. Catholic saints have a tendency of not decomposing in the ground, and the narrator enumerates several examples. He wonders why F. has led him into the woods to be alone with his dead.

In Chapter 49, Catherine's ailing uncle has an idea to save his life. He calls upon all the young, single girls in the village to come...