The Heart that Dared Not Let in the Sun
- It's October now and the first snowflakes are starting to fall on our beloved Norwegian settlement in South Dakota. The coming of winter means that there's a lot of work to do to get ready, and Per Hansa and his sons are more than happy to have lots to do.
- We finally find out what Per Hansa was doing making that huge net. He wanted to use it to catch ducks from the nearby pond. They catch so many ducks that Beret fears they'll spoil before the family can even eat them. She asks Per Hansa and the boys to stop catching so many ducks, but the men laugh at the thought of having too much food for the winter.
- During this season, people come to visit Per Hansa's house less and less. Beret is getting weird and people don't want to be around her anymore.
- Once Hansa's boys bring them fresh duck meat, though, they all come over to hear the story about how Hansa got so many ducks. They're also super impressed by Hansa's new whitewashed walls. But Hans Olsa is saddened by the fact that Per Hansa has kept all his clever schemes a secret. He warns Hansa not to get too proud. Hansa laughs this off and gives Olsa a few more ducks.
- Once winter has settled on them, Per Hansa gets bored with having nothing to do all day. The days seem to take forever and he feels some of the boredom that Beret has felt since arriving on the prairies. He spends a day chopping wood with the boys. But pretty soon this work is finished.
- The more time Per Hansa spends inside his house, the more sensitive he becomes to how strange Beret is acting.
- A while later, Per Hansa finds out that the Solum boys plan on leaving the settlement for the rest of the winter and returning in the spring. Everyone is afraid the young men will get married, settle down, and never come back, and the settlement can't get along without them. It's up to Per Hansa to convince them to stay by offering one of them (Henry) a job as a teacher for his children. Henry doesn't want to stay at first, but he eventually relents.
- Meanwhile, as the days grow greyer and drearier, Beret gets the impression that she's living in purgatory as a punishment for her life of sin. She thinks back on how she and Per Hansa first got married because she was pregnant. Ever since then, it seems as though her life has been cursed, though she has to admit that she still loves Per.
- Toward the end of her pregnancy, Beret lies in bed and rarely gets up. She thinks deep down that she'll never get up again. The other settlers whisper about her and say there's something wrong.
- On Christmas Eve, Beret goes into labor. Per Hansa comes to sit at her bedside, and she asks him to bury her in her big travelling chest when she dies—which she's sure is going to happen.
- But when all is said and done, Beret pulls through and the baby is fine. They ask Hans Olsa to christen the baby.