One Came Home Chapter 3 Summary

  • After she runs away from the funeral, Georgie takes her Springfield single-shot to the river to shoot gin bottles. Good times.
  • She has a list beside her, titled "For Journey."
  • Georgie is still remembering everything that led up to Agatha's disappearance.
  • She remembers a fight Agatha had with Grandfather Bolte in November: Agatha wanted her Christmas present to be money for tuition for the University of Wisconsin at Madison—she'd already saved enough for the first year.
  • Grandfather Bolte thought it was a waste because she'd be spending all that money just to get a husband. Sexist much, Grandpa B?
  • Georgie recalls agreeing with Grandfather Bolte that a degree wouldn't lead to a job and thinking that she really didn't want Agatha to leave her.
  • Georgie's memory skips to Christmas Day, when she received all the ammunition she could shoot from the store, while Agatha got a lovely blue-green ball gown, which she wore to the New Year's ball at the Olmstead Hotel. Agatha danced with Billy all night, and everyone said they'd soon be engaged.
  • Georgie didn't like that idea either because Billy would take Agatha away to homestead in Minnesota.
  • Between memories, Georgie returns to firing at bottles.
  • She thinks back to May, by which time she knew Agatha must have turned Billy down but had also seen her kiss him recently. We'll give Georgie this: It is a confusing situation.
  • By mid-May, Agatha hadn't been speaking to Georgie for a while because Georgie told Mr. Olmstead about the kiss.
  • Ten days before Agatha left, she told Georgie a Seneca story about an old man and some pigeons, in which the old man uses pigeon feathers to choose a path to follow.
  • That same night, Georgie and Agatha had another fight about Georgie's tattle-telling ways and about whether Agatha was going to stay in Placid and inherit Grandfather Bolte's store with Georgie.
  • Georgie remembers that the date Agatha left was Thursday, May 25. No one thought it was odd for a couple of days, but by Sunday, they were worried.
  • The following Monday, Georgie discovered that Agatha's savings was gone and Grandfather Bolte heard from a field hand that Agatha had been seen leaving town with pigeoners.
  • On Tuesday, May 30, Sheriff McCabe left to track Agatha, and on Tuesday, June 6, he returned with a body.
  • Georgie shoots one final bottle and considers her list, "For Journey." She needs a horse.