- Tom, Sheriff Purley, Dr. Considine, Joe Hemphill, and the undertaker (Mr. Vance) set out for Mrs. Breen's. Tom rides with the undertaker and feels weird looking at the box that will be used to carry Mrs. Breen's body.
- Tom observes that everything on the property looks just the same as it had the last time he'd been there, but without the snow and less lonely.
- He works up the courage to look at Widow Breen's body. He doesn't think it looks much different either, except that her skin seems a bit grayer and that "her face looked very far away, and a little as if she were watching them all from that distant spot" (24.13).
- That's only sort of creepy.
- Sheriff Purley asks Tom to go upstairs with him after Tom confirms to him and the Coroner that everything downstairs looks the same as last time.