Honest and Honorable are sitting external close to a colossal heap of utilized blocks. They have assembled their own more modest heap, and are knocking off the old mortar, each block in turn. Forthright is tapping away with a little sledge, and is a lot more slow than his dad, who utilizes a digging tool. The virus breeze annoys Honest, yet still up in the air to be useful. About six other battered men are working. Honorable's heap of cleaned blocks becomes more slow than the other men's, yet with Plain aiding he desires to earn anything. Blunt has learned not to rush, subsequent to breaking an excessive number of blocks from the start. He rises up to extend as an energized young fellow surges up with news.

The entire gathering gets up to go look. Honorable rapidly counts his heap of polished blocks and really at that time takes off with Straight to the point close behind. Five streets away there is a group, gazing toward the body of a young fellow who has been pounded into the ground and afterward lifted up to hang from a tree limb in the little park-like square opposite the Terre Haute sheriff's office. The culprits of this act have left, and presently residents are emerging to partake in the sight. Some have brought their kids. They point, showing a grave illustration. The demolished body is an image of strength, of progressive system. A scene exhibiting insusceptibility for the people who order quick equity.

Straight to the point gazes at the body, and afterward at the group. He starts to feel complicit. Regular individuals, many wearing business garments. He asks why he can't feel similar fulfillment they all offer. The occasion is a custom that is as yet progressing, and Honest doesn't have any desire to be important for the presentation. Before long he is close to tears. Respectable is thwarted. "Well," he tells Blunt, "...let's get on back."

Straight to the point starts life all alone. It is May and the weather conditions is agreeable. He dozes in the forest the principal night. The following day he is fortunate with his thumb, and comes to the following town. Forthcoming sees three men rush a trash bin behind an eatery after a waiting assistant exhausts a heap of breakfast scraps. He chooses to thump on secondary passages, requesting work or gifts. The main house he picks doesn't have anything to give. Nor the second. He goes through the day purposefully hitting whole areas, sometimes getting an impact point of bread or a nickel. At night he slips a look into a side window. He sees a man in a front room seat, perusing a paper. Two children are lying on the floor playing with toys. Forthright can see a lady in the kitchen. Briefly Forthcoming looks, and unexpectedly he is overflowed with disgrace. He dismisses and strolls, his eyes consuming.

Blunt bashfully asks a few more seasoned kids for guidance about hoboing. They are thoughtful to him until they wreck him and ransack him. A benevolent cop sees Forthcoming and allows him to go through the night in an agreeable prison cell. He gives Honest a Nehi and requests his story. Plain makes up a name, and says he is coming back to Iowa. The following night Plain finds a wanderer wilderness close to the train tracks, however he is frightened to move toward the harsh looking men. He dozes in the forest and is annoyed by bugs.

The following morning Straightforward is given a sandwich and a major glass of milk in the wake of wiping out a nursery. In the early evening he warily moves toward a crew of street kids his own age. This gathering is well disposed. They welcome Plain to go along with them. Independently, they hit areas, roads, and organizations. At night, they gather at the wilderness and assess the situation. They have two potatoes and an onion, a baloney butt becoming green, some bacon finishes, and 51 pennies. One of the children conveys a bindle with a little solid metal skillet. They light a fire and concoct a dinner, yet it's very little for five children. They purchase several five-penny feasts at a beanery, an unrefined burger joint in the wilderness with kidney beans rising in an old oil might over a wood at any point fire.

They remain together for a very long time, riding trains from one town to another. Two of them are wearing shoes with flappy soles, connected spot to string and loaded down with paper. One of the gathering is a sixteen-year-old young lady, dressed like a kid. She says she has advanced never to travel solo, just with undoubtedly three different children that she can trust. Plain warms up to Dennis, a little fourteen year-old. Dennis loves anything to do with cattle rustlers and westerns. He's on the chase after a Texas style cap.

Ultimately the gathering separates when they can't all settle on which bearing to head. Candid and Dennis head out, riding on the poles under a cargo vehicle. They travel for quite a long time, straight through one town but another, scarcely easing back. They have unwittingly jumped an express, a significant distance train. Solidifying fingers, squeezing legs. Ashes and balance rocks fly up and hit their countenances. Their roost isn't secure, assuming that they nod off they will fall under the haggles killed. On an unexpected stretch of harsh track both are almost ejected. Still the train rolls. It develops dull and severe virus. Plain is depleted and continues to gesture. Dennis keeps him alert by then again causing him to sing and asking him inquiries. It starts to snow. Toward the finish of the ride, Dennis is slapping Straight to the point, hard. At the point when the train at last stops Honest cries with alleviation and torment.