The beginning of the section is an introduction to the past and to Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. The reader begins to see how Stanley’s great-great-grandfather could even be considered a pig stealer. Elya wanted to marry a young girl, but Madame Zeroni thought otherwise. However, when he expressed his love, Madame felt sorry for him. She gave him a little pig and told him to walk up the mountain everyday and have him drink from the stream that runs up hill. She also made him promise that he would carry her up on the last day so she could drink from the stream. However, if he did not then he and his family for generations to come would be cursed. Elya did this everyday and the pig got bigger. On the last day he did not carry the pig up the mountain. He went to ask for the girl’s hand and the father weighed his pig next to another man’s pig. (This other man was Igor who also wanted to marry this girl.) Both pigs weighed the same. When the girl was asked whom she wanted to marry, she could not decide, so Elya left heartbroken because he thought she loved him. As he walked back towards home, he saw a sign asking for boat hands on a ship headed for America. He climbed aboard and forgot all about his promise to Madame Zeroni. Although he did find a wife and had a child (the first Stanley Yelnats, Stanley spelled forwards and backwards), bad luck started to follow him and his family. Stanley on the other hand, was having the worst time at Camp Green Lake. Each hole seemed harder then the last and he was always the last one to finish.