- Tom drags through his work at the mill the next day. Birdy says the long work days will get easier as he becomes used to it.
- The Flanchers are up at the Breen place when Tom and Birdy arrive. They don't speak to Tom and Birdy, but just creep on them silently for a while.
- Okay, weirdos.
- Tom and Birdy work until close to nine, load up, and start the drive home. When they get to one of their turnoffs (Buck's Corners), Tom tells Birdy he can walk the rest of the way home (half an hour walking…after walking to the mill in the morning and three miles to meet Birdy in the afternoon). Not exactly fun, but it'll save Birdy almost an hour travel time.
- They don't see the Flanchers for the rest of the week, and they finish stripping the shingles from the roof and start taking off the boards.
- Tom breaks a lot at the ends at first, but he watches Birdy and gets better.
- They take each day's boards down to the Dolan place at night and pile them up on spacer sticks collected by Cissie-Mae and Ellie.
- Birdy and Tom keep up with their hard work. Tom begins to feel like they actually will be able to get the whole barn taken down. The barn is half-gone, and the glass is half-full.
- One Sunday while Birdy is driving a load of rafters to the Dolans, Tom stays at the barn to continue work. That's when the Flanchers show up.
- Uh oh.
- Yantis climbs up Tom's ladder to where he is working and asks if he has come upon "anything" (a.k.a., the money). Tom says they've only been focused on taking the barn down.
- He holds his own pretty well, even when Yantis tells him that he and his brothers have been watching Tom and Birdy, and will keep at it, too.
- The Flanchers leave, and Birdy returns. All is well.