Nick Adams and Nick's father arrive at the lake shore with Nick's Uncle George. Two Indians are waiting there to pick them up. Nick and his father stands in the stern while the Indian is rowing. Nick asks where they are going and his father replies that they are going to the Indian camp because an Indian woman is very sick. The boats arrive on shore and they all walk through a meadow to the woods. There, they follow a trail that leads to the logging road, which is much lighter, they come around a bend, and then they come upon some shanties. Nick, his father, and his uncle enter the shanty nearest the road. Inside, they find an Indian woman who has been in labour for two days. She is lying on the bottom bunk of a bed. Her husband is on the upper bunk with a cut foot. When she cries out in pain, Nick’s father explains that she hurts because her muscles are trying to get the baby out of her body. Nick asks if he can give her anything to make the pain stop, but Nick's father answers that he does not have any anaesthetic.
Nick's father boils some medical instruments and washes his hands carefully. He explains to Nick that babies are supposed to be born head first but sometimes become turned around. He says that he may have to operate on this woman. When he does operate, several men must hold the woman down, and then a boy is born. Nick's father asks Nick if he likes being an intern. Nick lies and says he likes it fine. However, Nick refuses to watch when his father doing the caesarean whit a jack knife and sew it up whit nine-foot, tapered gut leaders. Afterward, Nick’s father and Uncle George are elated from the excitement of such a haphazard delivery. Nick's father says that the father of the baby must be very excited. He goes over to the father and pulls back his blanket. But the father had commit suicide. Nick's father tells Uncle George to take Nick away, but he does not do so before Nick sees his father tip the Indian father's head back.
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