Laurence describes the incredible landscape and the events that took place in summer, such as watching fires and the fire engines, and the young hobos who came to the door asking for water and food. Although drought was always possible, the landscape had its "continuing marvels" (Laurence, 56). There was the singing of the meadowlarks that hung from the telephone wires. The author remembers finding an old boat that she and her companions mended, and describes riding the boat along the river: "grounding her among the tangles of soft yellow marsh marigolds that grew succulently along the banks of the shrunken river, while the sun made our skins smell dusty-warm" (Laurence, 56). The most thrilling activity in summer was watching the fires and the fire engines pulled by horses. Laurence captures the activity in all its thrilling detail:.
Then the wooden tower's bronze bell would clonk and toll like a thousand speeded funerals in a time of plague, and in a few minutes a team of giant black horses would cannon forth, pulling the fire wagon like some scarlet chariot of the Goths, while the fireman clung with one hand, adjusting their helmets as they went. (Laurence, 56).
Summer was also the time when the men who rode the freight cars throughout the Prairies in search of work came to the back door and asked for a drink of water and a sandwich. "They were riding the freights, and you never knew where they had come from, or where they might end up, if anywhere" (Laurence, 56).
The prairie that Laurence lived in was in its way unique and filled with interesting people. Laurence describes the many eccentric people that lived in her town, and the oddities. There was an old lady who used to serve soda biscuits with peanut butter and a whole marshmallow during her afternoon tea with other women. The was another lady who coloured her hair a bright orange, which strangers often mistook at a distance for a feather hat.
