Chapter 7: In the first chapters of Book 2, readers learn the story of Katie's and Johnny's courtship and wedding. Johnny was the boyfriend of Hildy O'Dair, Katie's best friend. One evening, Hildy arranged for Johnny to bring a date for Katie, so that the two friends could double-date. Katie did not like her date, but she did like Johnny, and soon enough, she set out to win Johnny for herself.
This chapter also provides some background information about Katie's family. Her father, Thomas Rommely, describes himself as a devil. He hates Katie's marriage because he expected all four of his daughters to work and pay him their earnings. He fed his children when they were young, but once they are twelve or thirteen years old, they are to work and support him. He has no plans for any of them to marry, ever.
Katie's mother, Mary, made sure that all her children were taught to speak only English, so that they could not speak to their father, who speaks only German. In this way, she protects them from their father. Mary is a devout Catholic. She has a smooth, soothing voice, which all the women in her family have inherited. Sissy, the oldest of the daughters, married for the first time when she was only fourteen years old. She called her husband John because she liked the name, although that was not his given name. She blamed him for the four babies who died, and then left him and married a second man, whom she also called John. Sissy had four more babies with the second John, but these were also born dead. Her current husband is also called John.
The second Rommely daughter, Eliza, is not as pretty or vivacious as her three sisters. She was encouraged to become a nun and did so, changing her name to Sister Ursula. Because she has facial hair, Francie thinks that all nuns grow facial hair.
