Bruce hates the old pig he must feed slops to; fat and greedy, she reminds him of the worst kind of people. When the day finally comes for his father to kill and butcher the pig, Bruce thinks he'll be overjoyed to see her gone. He's so excited, in fact, that he asks to watch alongside his older brother, Chet, ignoring his mother's warnings. Bruce's father shoots the pig, and she careens around dying for a few minutes before he catches up to her and cuts her head off. Bruce is overwhelmed by this violence and throws up, quickly herded back into the house by his mother. But as he lies on the couch recovering, his guilt creeps in. Everybody else is helping with the butchering, and the other boys in the village likely think he's a sissy for reacting in such a manner to the pig's death. He forces himself to return for the butchering, even though dark spots crowd his vision and he wants to throw up again. His father pulls the pig's bladder from a bag of intestines and inflates it, turning it into a ball. At first, Bruce is so horrified by this he wants to throw up again. But he remembers he must prove he's not a sissy, so he goes and kicks the inflated bladder before any of the other boys get to it. As he does, his nausea subsides, and he feels triumphant and powerful.