Wilda is a young girl living in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her widowed mother and her grandfather. During the winter, Wilda reports at dinner one night that the Grimshaw boys, known for their basketball skills, are back at school after Mr. Pope previously expelled them from the settlement school. Grandpa tells Wilda that Mr. Pope does not teach the kids anything useful and cares more about basketball than education. Concerned for his granddaughter's learning, especially now that he is on the school board, he asks Wilda each night what she learned at school that day. Wilda often reports on fast facts or on what poem or debate they had in what Mr. Pope calls "Society" sessions. At school, Elfie, Wilda's best friend, reveals to her that she thinks Troy Grimshaw is cute. Eula Bay, the new girl at the settlement school, overhears and makes fun of Elfie. Elfie becomes angry and decides she does not like Eula Bay. Not long after, Mr. Pope expels Glen Grimshaw from the school for cutting the hair off of the tail of Mr. Pope's donkey. He had asked all the students who had done it, and nobody had answered. Elfie knew it was Eula Bay who snitched, and she told all the other girls in class. The next day, Troy Grimshaw was being especially nice to Eula Bay. After Society, during which Eula Bay and Troy debated whether horse sense or book sense is more important, Troy tells Eula Bay that horse sense is important because, for example, you can feel a train coming with your tongue. Eula Bay does not believe Troy, and the boy insists that it is true. The two go to the railroad tracks to test out the theory in the freezing cold, and a bunch of the students follow, including Wilda and Elfie. Wilda wants to go home, but Elfie insists that they need to find out the truth. Eula Bay puts her tongue on the tracks to see if she can hear a train coming, and her tongue gets stuck. Mr. Pope comes to help, and Eula Bay finally gets her tongue off, though she has lost half the skin on her tongue. Mr. Pope expels Troy for his prank, and Elfie begins to sob because she knew what Troy was up to the whole time, knew that Troy thought Eula Bay was the snitch. When Wilda goes home for the night, Grandpa asks her what she learned at school that day, and Wilda breaks down in tears.