On a dusty spring morning in the middle of the Great Depression, a hungry drifter named Chester dropped from a boxcar and ran smack into the Wilson family, who hired him to slop their hogs and proceeded to turn him into their private buffoon. Chester was full of big ideas about his dignity, and before long he ached with love for the Wilson's pretty young cousin, Miss Lindy. But the family had no intention of letting him marry among them; they figured God had put this crazy-faced, bedraggled clown on earth for their amusement, and every time he tried to rise they stuck a thumb in his eye. This uproarious novel, full of slapstick and cunning tricks, breathes new life into American folklore traditions, evoking the voices of Midwestern yarnspinners from fifty years ago.