Chapter 2 Summary

Over the next three years after his initiation, Jimmie comes to question both his initiation and his tribal manhood. In 1894, Rev. Neville is given charge of the Methodist church in Muswellbrook and he asks if Jimmie would like to join he and his wife as a sort of servant or houseboy. Thinking that this might improve his status in life, Jimmie goes with them. Once there, he also comes to believe, with the convincing of the Nevilles, that it would be better to have children who are scarcely black and that he should try to marry a nice white girl from a farm.

In Muswellbrook one day, Jimmie is en route to the butchers for Mrs. Neville when he sees a kinsman, Wongee Tom Carstairs. Jimmie asks him if there are other kinsmen around but Wongee Tom says no. They watch a mother...