Upon noticing a white man’s head growing out of their well, two young Black girls rush to tell their father what they have seen. Poppa reveals that the man in their well is Mr. Dotson Gerber, and he knows Gerber is in the well because he planted him there himself after accidentally killing the man with his shovel after Gerber refused to stop calling him “Uncle.” Poppa tells the girls and his wife that he will turn himself in for killing Gerber as he wants people to know that he killed a white man, but his wife and daughters exclaim that he shouldn’t turn himself in because no one knows or is likely to find out.  Even so, one of the girls rides on a horse with her father on the way to the sheriff’s office, but they find that the sheriff is out of town for a Christian conference for the rest of the week. Poppa decides to visit Gerber’s wife to explain what happened to her husband. Calling Poppa “Uncle,” Mrs. Gerber greets him, and when Poppa explains that he is the one who killed Gerber, Mrs. Gerber says that he has done her a great favor because her late husband used to mistreat her mother and she is now set to remarry. Mrs. Gerber says that she hopes Poppa will not tell anyone else so that she can continue with her new marriage, and Poppa agrees, saying he will plant collard greens around the body.  After returning home, Momma cries that Poppa has gone crazy with his plan to plant collard greens, and Poppa slaps her across the mouth. Poppa begins to farm again, with Gerber’s body, which begins to eject itself vertically from the ground, as fertilizer. Poppa and the girls put a bag over Gerber’s head and decorate him to look like a scarecrow, and vegetables, wheat, and corn flourish on the new farm. At the end of the summer, the sheriff stops by to ask what Poppa had wanted previously, and Poppa says that it wasn’t important.