- Nick arrives fresh off the train at Seney, a former town that has been burned to the ground. There’s pretty much nothing left of it anymore.
- He sees the river and watches the trout holding themselves on the bottom.
- As he watches the trout, Nick feels his heart tighten.
- Nick gets his heavy pack and, feeling happy, hikes into the burned countryside. He uses the river to guide him.
- Eventually he sits down to rest and smoke a cigarette. A black grasshopper climbs up his sock, and Nick realizes that all the grasshoppers are black because they’ve been living in and among burnt country. He tells the grasshopper to fly away (yes, he talks to the grasshopper).
- Nick hikes for a while and then lies down in the shade. He falls asleep. When he wakes up the sun is going down and he hikes the mile toward the river.
- When he gets there, he finds a level piece of ground and makes camp, pitching his tent and hanging up his pack like a good camper.
- Dinner consists of a can of spaghetti and a can of pork and beans (yum!) cooked over the fire with some bread. Nick knows it’s too hot to eat but eats it anyways and does the thing where you have to open your mouth so you don’t burn your tongue.
- Next on the menu is the coffee and dessert course. Making the coffee makes Nick think about someone named Hopkins. He opens a can of apricots and eats them as the coffee boils.
- As he drinks, Nick reminisces about Hopkins, who made coffee in a particular way. Hopkins was a super rich guy and seemed to have been good friends with Nick (they went on a trip together), but afterward he never saw Hopkins again.
- Nick laughs as he drinks his Hopkins-style coffee, but then he starts to feel his mind working and wants to stop it. So he climbs into his tent for bed.
- Before he falls asleep Nick hears a mosquito buzzing in his tent. He kills it with a match and then falls asleep. Sweet dreams?