Bert Breen's Barn Chapter 52 Summary

  • The office light at Billy-Bob's is still turned on. What a night owl.
  • Tom knocks at the window and explains their reason for arriving so late. They bring the chests in and put the horse in the barn.
  • Billy-Bob tells Polly Ann he remembers her from when she was a girl and how pretty she was then and still is. That's nice, if not exactly relevant.
  • The two of them move the chests into the office and pull the shades over the windows while Tom is putting Drew in the barn.
  • They open one chest to find it full of bundles of money. But there's no way the second chest will be the same, right?
  • Wrong. Bundles.
  • For a sinking moment, Tom wonders if his family will be allowed to keep it.
  • They come up with a system for counting the money.
  • Billy-Bob tallies up their totals: $8,779, not counting the loose silver pieces. Jackpot!
  • Billy-Bob asks what Tom will do with. The question indicates that the Dolans will be able to keep the money. Doubts be gone.
  • Tom is overwhelmed, and doesn't know what to do. Billy-Bob says they need to get the money to the bank. Tom doesn't want to keep the money at home overnight in case of those pesky Flanchers, so Billy-Bob says he will keep it and meet Tom with it at the bank at 9 am sharp.
  • For once, a trustworthy lawyer.
  • Billy-Bob advises them not to tell anyone where the money came from, including Oscar Lambert (the banker), though he suspects Mr. Lambert will guess. They plan to say simply, "Tom came into money" (39).
  • They lock the chests, put them into a closet, and agree Tom will keep the keys overnight.
  • On the way home, Polly Ann declares, "it's going to be so different for us now!" (40).