Mrs. Hale, the neighbor, and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff wife, have come to gather items to take to Minnie to make her more comfortable as she sits in jail. Mrs. Hale remembers Minnie when she was young. Mrs. Peters did not grow up in the town.
The women begin to look around for things to take to Minnie, and Mrs. Hale discovers that Minnie's clothes are shabby and old. Remembering when she was young, she tells Mrs. Peters:
She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that --oh, that was thirty years ago.
Later, after the women discover the empty bird cage and the dead bird, they begin to piece together the scenario of what happened the night that John Wright was killed. After a brief discussion with the county attorney in which they did not share what they have discovered, the ladies sit and ponder both their own situations and Minnie's as well.
Mrs. Hale recalls another memory of Minnie as a young girl. She compares Minnie to a bird--pretty and kind. She was shy and elusive. Thinking of Minnie today, Mrs. Hale comments on how much Minnie had changed since she had married John Wright.