Anxious to go fishing, Spanky skips out of Sunday school, despite the admonitions of his pals Alfalfa, Mildred, Sidney, and Marianne that "Something's going to happen to you."

Chased out of a private estate by a cantankerous caretaker, the two boys wander into a dark, mysterious woods just as an eclipse occurs and at the same time a large group of black worshippers are holding a mass baptism ceremony.

Some view the baptism and background singing of the Negro spiritual "I Am Leaning on The Lord", which contains the words: "Why don't you come out of the wilderness" as a racist stereotype.

However, as Spanky, Porky and Buckwheat are scared out of the woods, a wilderness, it could merely be a play on the song's words for their situation.

The same church is visible in the background in the scene where Jackie is walking down the sidewalk to Mary Ann's house in the short The First Seven Years.