<P> Shaking in the ditch, the family waits for help . When she notices a black hearse coming down the road, the grandmother flags it down until it stops . Three men come out and begin to talk to her . All three have guns . The grandmother says that she recognizes the leader, the quiet man in glasses, as The Misfit, who immediately confirms this, saying it would have been better for them all if she had not recognized him, and Bailey curses his mother . The Misfit's men take Bailey and John Wesley into the woods on a pretense and two pistol shots ring out . The Misfit claims that he has no memory of the crime for which he was imprisoned; when he was informed by doctors that he had killed his father, he claimed that his father died in a flu epidemic . </P> <P> The men then return to take the children's mother, the baby, and June Star to the woods for the same purpose as Bailey and the boy . The grandmother begins pleading for her own life . When The Misfit talks to her about Jesus, he expresses his doubts about His raising Lazarus from the dead . As he speaks, The Misfit becomes agitated and angry . He snarls into the grandmother's face and claims that life has "no pleasure but meanness". In her growing confusion, she thinks that The Misfit is going to cry, so she reaches out and touches his shoulder tenderly, saying "Why you're one of my babies . You're one of my own children!" His reaction is to jump away "as if a snake had bitten him" and he kills her with three shots through the heart . </P> <P> When the family has all been murdered, The Misfit takes a moment to clean his glasses and pick up the grandmother's cat; he states that the grandmother would have been a good woman if "it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life ." The story ends with The Misfit chastising one of his sidekicks, Bobby Lee, for making a comment "some fun!" "Shut up, Bobby Lee," he retorts . "It's no real pleasure in life ." </P> <Dl> <Dt> Bailey </Dt> <Dd> Atlanta resident with a wife and three children and his mother . He crashes their car on a family trip to Florida when he gives in to his mother's and children's wishes to visit an old plantation . </Dd> <Dt> Bailey's wife </Dt> <Dd> Quiet woman described as having a face that was "as broad and innocent as a cabbage ." She is not identified by name, only as "the children's mother ." </Dd> <Dt> Grandmother </Dt> <Dd> Bailey's mother, who lives with the family . She is not identified by name . </Dd> <Dt> John Wesley, June Star </Dt> <Dd> Bailey's children, aged 8 and 7, respectively . </Dd> <Dt> The Baby </Dt> <Dd> Male child of Bailey and his wife . Not identified by name . </Dd> <Dt> Red Sammy Butts </Dt> <Dd> Restaurant operator who agrees with the Grandmother that the world is in a state of decline . </Dd> <Dt> Red Sammy's Wife </Dt> <Dd> Waitress in Red Sammy's restaurant . She observes that not a single person in the world is trustworthy . </Dd> <Dt> The Misfit </Dt> <Dd> Escaped prisoner who comes across Bailey's family after they have crashed . </Dd> <Dt> Hiram, Bobby Lee </Dt> <Dd> Prisoners who escaped with The Misfit . </Dd> <Dt> Edgar Atkins Teagarden </Dt> <Dd> Man referred to in a story told by Bailey's mother . He would have been a good man to marry, she says, because he owned Coca - Cola stock and died rich . </Dd> <Dt> Pitty Sing </Dt> <Dd> Pet cat of the Grandmother. Bailey flings it against a tree after the accident . It is last seen rubbing against The Misfit's leg . ("Pitty Sing" is a character in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Mikado .) </Dd> <Dt> Gray Monkey </Dt> <Dd> Pet of Red Sammy Butts . The monkey is chained to a chinaberry tree . </Dd> </Dl>

Who says a good man is hard to find