Johnnie, don’t you get into no mischief, you hear me?" Johnnie responds, his voice full of unmasked hatred, "Don’t worry about me, Daddy. As the boys turn to go, Gabriel says pointedly, "You kids enjoy yourselves. Gabriel insinuates that Roy brings David to church on Sundays rather than Johnnie, and seems to suggest that David is Roy's friend, when in fact all the boys know that David and Johnnie are the close friends of the bunch. The introduction is tense and awkward because it's so clear that Gabriel favors Roy over Johnnie. At the start of the trip, Gabriel introduces himself to some visitors from outside the congregation as well as to David and his mother, Mrs. David, Roy, and Johnnie (and especially David) are dismayed to find Sylvia in the constant and clinging company of the young Brother Elisha and her protective mother, Sister Daniels.
They lament the laxness of the youth and their resistance to accepting the church into their lives. Once aboard the boat, the so-called saints of the church, the pastors and deacons and devout elders, gather in cliques and discuss the need for a revival in the community. It's clear that Johnnie is more excited about the outing than Roy the morning of the outing, Roy considers staying in the city, but Johnnie hopes he joins them, knowing that if Roy stays in the city, he'll be forced to stay as well. They decide (without a consensus, as Roy thinks it looks "cheap") on buying her a gold-plated brooch in the shape of a butterfly and plan to present it to her during the outing. Roy, Johnnie, and Johnnie's friend David pool their money to buy Sylvia, a girl who is a member of their congregation, a birthday present.
The outing is open to all people: the "saved" members of their congregation, the unbaptized, the sinners, Greeks, Jews, and gentiles alike. Usually they take everyone to a park, but this year, they opt for a more extravagant option and charter a large boat to sail up the Hudson and deposit them for the day in Bear Mountain. The outing is a yearly event put on by the church as a way for congregants to enjoy nature together and praise God in a wide-open space. In this story, too, the title also refers to the setting of the narrative, here an outing organized by the congregation for which their father, Gabriel, is a deacon. "The Outing" continues in the same world and with the same cast of characters as the first story, "The Rockpile," but in this story the brothers Roy and Johnnie are teenagers.
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