This shows how focus & determination can help complete any task. While resting Phoenix talked about her reward, which was taking a piece of cake from a little boy that she sees, however, when she reaches out to take it he is no longer there. There is yet another encounter that occurs while she is walking through an old cotton field and cornfield, where she found there was no path. Phoenix relied on memory of where her path would eventually pick up; however, she has a run in with a scarecrow. She initially thought it was a man and then later a ghost, but her poor vision made the object unclear. She called out and waited for an answer, but when nothing happened, she reached out and touched the scarecrow. Phoenix then realized she was too old and visually impaired, so she decided to embrace the situation and began to dance with the scarecrow.
A black dog came up out of the weeds and startled the Phoenix so she went to hit it with her cane lost her balance and fell into a ditch. A white man, who is a hunter, comes along and helps her out of the ditch. He can also see that she is old and frail and tries to encourage her to turn back and go home, but Phoenix exclaims that she is on a mission and needs to move forward. As the man was distracted for a moment, a nickel falls to the ground and the old woman sees this and picks it up. "Her fingers slid down and along the ground under the piece of money with the grace and care like with lifting an egg from under a setting hen." (55) Phoenix lifted the nickel and slipped it into her apron. It is not said if the man deliberately let the nickel fall, but it can be inferred that he was feeling generous and he knew the only way for this old proud woman to accept it was to drop it because he knew that Phoenix would have never accepted it if he handed it to her. There may be a history between the two and he now feels sorry for her, and since she is too proud for charity, he purposefully drops it in front of her.
