After seeing the sign, Laura walks to the next crosswalk and crosses to the right side of the road. Then she walked to the next intersection and crossed it. Then she saw the on ramp to the interstate curving to the right, and she followed it.
She wanted to keep moving, but also stay hidden so that James, and especially James' dad, do not see her. Unfortunately, the sun had set a few minutes ago, so she had to stay near the edge of the trees since it was getting dark.
Laura walked slowly through the trees because with it getting dark and all of the tree roots, leaves, and fallen twigs and branches, there was a possibility of tripping and falling on them.
She kept walking slowly, with tears in her eyes. She began to cry saying: "Ma, Pa, I want to come home. I want to come home. I don't want to be here anymore." She kept walking, but due to the darkness and her tears, she did not see the branch, and she tripped over it and fell. She cried even more, for when she tripped, she twisted and sprained her left ankle.
She tripped at 9:15 P.M., and stayed where she was for thirty minutes before getting up and pushing on.
Laura had a lot of pain in her ankle, but she didn't let that stop her from pushing on. She knew that she would need to rest it from time to time, and that she will probably need to see a doctor for him to take a look at it.
Laura felt as if she had fallen into a nearly dried up creek that was full of partially wet soil. Her face, arms, and legs were covered in it, and so was her dress and hair ribbons. She didn't think it could come clean, but she hoped it could, because this was the only dress she had other than her Sunday dress and she didn't want Ma and Pa to spend the money to buy some calico from Olson's Mercantile for Ma to make her a new dress. Her hope faded some more when she found that the hem of her dress had been torn, and she figured that it must have gotten caught on the branch. This made her cry more because she believed that Ma and Pa would have to spend the money because of how bad the condition of her dress was.