Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman meets his friend Cooter one Sunday after church. Elijah agrees to investigate some mysterious animal tracks with Cooter. A local man known as the Preacher tells them that a family of dangerous hoop snakes made the tracks. The Preacher claims that hoop snakes bite their own tail to form a wheel and roll after their prey; one bite and the victim swells from the head down until he or she explodes. Horrified, Elijah runs home, where his mother lectures him for being overly afraid (“fra-gile”) of harmless, untrue things. Elijah comments on Ma’s fear of “toady-frogs,” and Ma reprimands him for answering back.

When Cooter finds an enormous toad, Elijah and Cooter decide to hide the living animal in Ma’s sewing basket. They hide to watch her discover it. She flings her sewing materials in a panic but doesn’t vocalize at all, nor does she reprimand. Elijah is pleased that she’s a good sport.

Two days pass, and Ma offers Elijah a cookie at the bottom of the jar. Elijah pulls out a snake instead of a cookie, screams, and runs away. Ma and Pa laugh, delighted that Elijah got a taste of his own medicine.