In Chapter 8, Bud and Bugs visit a Hooverville where they eat a meal and do the dishes. After the boys finish doing the dishes, they walk back to the main fire, and a man playing a harmonica asks Bud if they will be hopping on the train to Chicago tomorrow. Bud tells him that they plan on getting on the train, and the man tells them to get as much sleep as they can because it is leaving at five-fifteen. Bud and Bugs then climb into a tent with a few other boys to get some sleep, and Bud begins to think. He thinks about the comment Deza's mother made about the poor kids on the road by themselves, blowing like dust in the wind because they really don't have a home. Bud then begins to wonder if going to California is the right thing to do. Bud is worried that he might not know who his family is when he gets out there, but he is willing to try to find them. Fortunately, Bud never makes it out to California, and finds his family in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and they are not who he expects them to be at all.