- Welcome to Part I, which is on-the-nosedly titled "The Wild Land."
- The novel opens with a description of Hanover, a made-up town somewhere on the Nebraska prairie.
- We're not exactly talking prime real estate, here. Think Wizard of Oz, just without all those Technicolor parts. It's winter, it's freezing cold, and everything is gray, gray, gray.
- The narrator depicts Hanover as a town that was built on the fly, without "any appearance of permanence;" houses are scattered here and there (1.1.1). The children are in school, and only a few wayward figures can be seen walking about.
- A little country boy, Emil Bergson, is crying in the cold. He's wearing what looks like grandpa's hand-me-downs. Turns out his little kitten has climbed up a telegraph pole and can't get down.
- Emil isn't used to being in town, and he's impatient for his sister, Alexandra Bergson, to come back from the doctor's office.
- Alexandra returns, wearing a long man's overcoat "like a young soldier" (1.1.3).
- She asks Emil why he's crying and he explains about the kitten.
- Alexandra decides they need some help. She goes to find her friend Carl Linstrum, to see if he can do the job.
- When she takes off the veil she's wearing and wraps it around her brother's head, a "shabby little traveling man" makes a comment about her golden locks. She gives him a fierce, don't-mess-with-me look.
- She finds Carl in the drug store and brings him to the rescue scene.
- Carl climbs up the pole and brings down the kitten.
- He asks Alexandra whether she's been to the doctor. Alexandra holds back tears, saying that the doctor doesn't think her father has much time left to live.
- Carl is a "thin, frail boy, with brooding dark eyes" (1.1.12). Though Carl doesn't respond to Alexandra, the narrator lets us know he sympathizes with her.
- Carl offers to give Alexandra a ride as far as his house.
- Alexandra looks for Emil and finds him playing with a little Bohemian girl, Marie Tovesky, in the country store. Marie is described as a little girl from the city, who looks like a "brunette doll" (1.1.13). She's the center of attention, and especially loved by her uncle, Joe Tovesky.
- Alexandra lets Marie and Emil continue to play with the kitten, until Marie's uncle comes to take her. Before she leaves, she tries to give Emil some candy, but he hides his face shyly in his sister's skirts.
- Carl comes back to take Alexandra and Emil home. The horse drawn wagon takes the three of them away from the town and onto the frozen prairie, toward their homestead.
- Alexandra talks to Carl about her dying dad. She mentions how worried he is about leaving his children and wife behind in such difficult times. Carl offers to bring over his magic lantern to help cheer everyone up.
- Alexandra is excited by the idea. Carl lights the lantern on the wagon, then gets off and walks home. Alexandra and Emil drive the rest of the way to the Bergson homestead.