- Peekay wakes up on the train and finds a goodbye letter from Hoppie with his ten shillings pinned to his shirt.
- In the compartment, Peekay hears a funny sound and smells a horrible smell. It turns out to be Big Hettie, who is passed out on the bunk below Peekay's.
- Peekay has to put his nose out the window to get away from the stench, but when it gets cold he goes to the bathroom.
- When he comes back, Big Hettie has fallen halfway out of her bed, so Peekay pushes her all the way off so she'll be comfortable, putting a pillow under her head and a blanket over her tummy.
- The conductor, Peekay's new babysitter, shows up, and is very distressed to see Big Hettie on the floor.
- The conductor, Pik Botha, yells at Peekay for not having his ticket clipped, and complains about Hoppie for not having done his job and clipping the ticket. He also complains about having lost money on the fight, because he had bet on Jackhammer Smit.
- Pik Botha announces that he is a born-again Christian, and takes Peekay to breakfast in the dining car, where he gives a sermon on the evils of gambling and fighting to the waiter, Hennie Venter.
- When they go back to the compartment Big Hettie wakes up and feels like she is dying. Peekay has to climb all over her to bring her a glass of water, and then she tries to get Pik Botha to help her get off of the floor, where she's lodged underneath the bunks.
- Pik Botha and Peekay try their best to get Big Hettie up, but she's just too heavy and weak, and in the end Peekay loses his grip and smacks his head right into Pik Botha's family jewels, which is a humorous spectacle for Big Hettie.
- Hennie Venter then shows up, and just gives Big Hettie more pillows until they can get to the next stop, where they'll have to remove the bunks.
- Big Hettie makes a gigantic breakfast order, and Hennie goes to get it.
- Meanwhile, she tells Peekay that the reason Hoppie doesn't make it is that he doesn't have natural hate in him, the killer instinct. Peekay asks her how he can learn to hate, but she tells him that it's better to concentrate on love.
- Big Hettie tells Peekay that what Hoppie does have is pride, courage, and brains. When he asks her how he can learn to have that, she tells him that "Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it." Peekay doesn't really get it, but he memorizes the advice anyway.
- Then Big Hettie tells Peekay about her old boyfriend, a lightweight boxer who always lost. After his fights he would beat her up, and then he would feel like a winner. He died in a fight of a brain hemorrhage, and Big Hettie starts to cry as she tells Peekay the story.
- Big Hettie refuses to eat the train lunch, but she's packed a feast in a basket that she makes Peekay open up. She ravenously scarfs down an entire chocolate cake, making a mess and not even offering any to Peekay. Then she cries and apologizes, and lets him have first pick.
- After that she eats chicken, corned beef, and mutton. She offers chicken to Peekay, but he can't eat it because of Granpa Chook's memory.
- When they finally arrive to the stop in Kaapmuiden, some men come in to remove the beds from the compartment. But Big Hettie looks very bad, and has a lot of pain. Peekay yells for Hennie Venter to come help, but it's too late and she dies, holding Peekay's hand. Talk about sudden.