Harp Oletsky returns from repairing the Spider's fuel line to find Cleo Allfrey, the government photographer, waiting on his porch with her camera. She explains she had driven past his land and was struck by the unusual health of his wheat crop, and asks permission to photograph his fields. Harp, anxious about drawing attention to his mysteriously thriving land, asks her not to publicize the photos but allows her to shoot.

As they walk through the fields, Cleo is briefly startled by the scarecrow, mistaking it for a dancing man, which unsettles Harp. She admires the soil and the easy breathing of the open air, and Harp shows her the damp earth, vaguely admitting that "something" is helping him grow without irrigation. Cleo accepts this as a trade secret. They work in companionable silence as she sets up landscape shots, and Harp grudgingly agrees to appear in several photographs.

Cleo discusses photography with Harp, comparing reading light and tones to how he reads his fields. Around midday, Harp invites her in for lunch; she declines but reveals what she truly needs: a light-tight space to develop her own prints, since her boss in Washington wants all negatives sent to D.C. Although Harp had wanted her to leave quickly to avoid gossip from Otto, his niece, or Urna, he surprises himself by offering a solution. He kneels and opens a hidden door in the ground, revealing a space suitable for a darkroom.