The Farm
"The harvesting of the corn and cotton, peanuts and squash, made each day a golden surprise that caused excited little tremors to run up her jaws."
These descriptions at the beginning of the story reveal the image of an almost idyllic country place. The mentions of crops suggest abundance, and Myop's excitement is almost palpable for the reader. Eventually, however, the reader will realize that Myop's situation is not exactly as idyllic as it initially seems.
Poverty
"Turning her back on the rusty boards of her family's sharecropper cabin, Myop walked along the fence till it ran into the stream made by the spring."
Though Myop is still very enthusiastic about life, her family is not wealthy, as the rusty boards of their home suggest. It becomes clear that Myop's optimism and zest for life are in spite of her family's condition, not because of them; in other words, her childhood innocence blinds her to her family's material shortcomings.
The Corpse
"When she pushed back the leaves and layers of earth and debris Myop saw that he'd had large white teeth, all of them cracked or broken, long fingers, and very big bones. All his clothes had rotted away except some threads of blue denim from his overalls. The buckles of the overall had turned green."
A series of almost fragmentary images convert the appearance of the dead man. Myop notices his broken teeth, his rotted clothes, and the green of his buckles. It is clear that the man has been dead for a very long time.
