- Doug and Tom are walking downtown in late August and see school supplies in shop windows. Doug tells Tom that maybe it's just a mirage, but of course that's wishful ten-year-old thinking.
- They return home and pick the last few dandelions from the yard.
- While they're rounding up the raw materials for the last batch of Dandelion Wine, Doug tells Tom he has a hunch: "Next year's going to be even bigger, days will be brighter, nights longer and darker, more people dying, more babies born, and me in the middle of it all."
- We're really proud of how Doug turned that frown upside down.
- Grandpa's bottling up the last of the dandelion wine. He's made "ninety-odd" bottles that summer. We're picturing this family bathing in ketchup, washing clothes with ketchup, and having a never-ending hot-dog eating contest.
- Doug, Tom, and Grandpa take the porch swing down and put it away.
- Doug spends one last night in the cupola bedroom, writing about how summer turns into fall. Then, the book ends as it began, except this time he's standing at the window and telling the town to go to bed.
- He falls asleep, and summer 1928 comes to an end.
- And then the Lonely One jumps out from under the bed and stabs him to death! No, just kidding. He just falls asleep. It's a happy ending.