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The phrase “good country people” is repeated throughout the story. The narrator uses it to describe how Mrs. Hopewell views Mr. and Mrs. Freeman. They are “good country people” and “the salt of the earth.” They are not “trash” like other tenants Mrs. Hopewell has previously hired. Mrs. Hopewell thinks Mrs. Freeman is a lady and not someone she’d be ashamed to take out and be seen with. And the Freeman daughters are “the finest girls she knew.” In reality, Mrs. Freeman is an opinionated busybody, and her daughters do not adhere to convention. Still, Mrs. Hopewell says, “good country people” are hard to find, so she’d best hang onto them.
Hulga has a different view of “good country people.” She looks down on them as intellectually inferior and deluded by faith. Hulga would be far away from them if it weren’t for her weak heart. At first, she holds contempt for Manley Pointer because she thinks he is “good country people,” but later, his perceived simplicity and earnestness win her over.
Manley Pointer presents himself to Mrs. Hopewell as “good country people.” He tells her that he is just a simple country boy. He is “from out in the country around Willohobie, not even from a place, just from near a place.” Being simple and country is enough to get an invitation to dinner and inspire Mrs. Hopewell’s interest in him as a possible husband for Hulga, despite his droning on about his boring life. Ultimately, Hulga is heartbroken when she learns that he is not “good country people.”
