- The week before the barn-raising is a flurry of women coming and going. Food, food, food, and final prep. It's kind of like Christmas, but with more flour.
- Tom goes down the road to the Masseys' to borrow sawhorses to use for food tables. He "looked enviously" at Massey's Holstein cows and concrete floor, thinking how long it will be until he can afford those things.
- Mr. Massey says he's heard Tom has a "real good barn" and that he'll be at the barn-raising the next day.
- On the walk home, Tom thinks about the first time he went to the Breen place and got the inkling to buy the barn. And now his idea has actually panned out. Crazy, huh?
- Tom and Polly Ann stay up late together, sharing a cup of tea and worrying about the money they'll owe for food (and probably other things as well). When Tom finally goes to bed, he has a nightmare that a big mouse destroys his barn's wood.
- He wakes from the nightmare, but then worries about rain. Take a chill pill, Tom.