- Penny gets hit with a bad case of rheumatism in February and is stuck in bed, worried he won't be up to the spring planting.
- Meanwhile, Jody does as many chores as he can to help.
- One day, at the sinkhole, he looks up and realizes how much Flag has grown. He'll be a yearling soon! Hey—isn't that the name of this book or something? And hasn't it been almost a year in Jody's life since the book started?
- Flag has definitely become more of a problem. He has tricks to get out of any confinement, and knocks food off the table left and right.
- When Ory wakes up screaming one night, because he had put his wet muzzle to her face, she finally banishes him from the house for good.
- Jody is mad, but when he wakes up the next morning, Penny calls him outside to show him that Flag has trampled their tobacco plants, and ruined most of them. There goes their money crop. (Maybe Flag was just trying to warn them about the dangers of smoking?)
- They decide not to tell Ma, but Penny tells Jody to put stakes all throughout the bed, so he won't run through it again.