- A few years have passed, and the Bergson family is struggling through a period of drought and crop failure. Everyone has started to wonder whether the Nebraskan plains were ever even meant to be inhabited.
- Lou and Oscar would probably be happier with a regular job in the city, like their Uncle Otto, who's a baker in Chicago. In that way, they're a lot like their neighbors. A true pioneer, though, the narrator tells us, "should have imagination" and not be afraid to persevere (1.4.1).
- The chapter begins in September, just after the second in a row of bad summers.
- Alexandra is digging up sweet potatoes when Carl shows up. He catches her lost in thought.
- Despite all the depression surrounding the drought, Carl is happy to catch a glimpse of Alexandra, with her long, reddish braid that "fairly burned in the sunlight" (1.4.2).
- Carl asks to speak with Alexandra. Without much beating around the bush, he tells her that his family has decided to move away.
- Carl says his father will go back to working in a cigar factory in St. Louis and that Carl himself will train to become an engraver.
- They're both on the verge of tears at this point. Carl says it's for the best; this way, Alexandra will have one less thing to worry about. Plus, his father was never really cut out to be a farmer.
- Alexandra agrees that it's best for them to go. But she's still scared to think how much she will miss him. She doesn't try to hide her tears.
- Carl insists that he's never really been all that much help to Alexandra. She reminds him that he's helped her whole family, and her especially, by understanding them.
- Then Carl and Alexandra get all sentimental on us, talking about the old times when Carl had just arrived with his poor father, who knew nothing about farming, about hunting for Christmas trees, making plum wine, etc. We get it—they're best friends forever, and now one of them is moving away. Bummer.
- Carl promises to write to Alexandra "as long as I live," and says he'll work for her as much as for himself. Alexandra say she fears telling her brothers, who she thinks are already cross with her for refusing to move away like almost everyone else.
- Alexandra notices it's getting dark and says she needs to go inside. As they walk together, she mentions that she'll have no friends after he leaves, except for her little brother, Emil.
- Later on, the narrator describes the dinner scene with Alexandra, her mother and her brothers. Lou and Oscar are full-grown now, and their personalities have finally taken shape. Lou is the thinner and cleverer one, with a tendency to be impulsive and flighty. His brother, Oscar, is much bigger and stronger, and values routine above all, whether or not he gets the best outcome. The two are good friends and are rarely apart from one another.
- At dinner, Alexandra calmly announces that the Linstrums, Carl's family, are moving back to St. Louis.
- Lou and Oscar start grumbling, saying it's a sign of the times. Their own family had better move while they still can.
- Alexandra, on the other hand, is convinced that the land they own will one day be worth a fortune, so there's no use in selling it now.
- Lou scoffs at this. He's convinced that the people who first decided to settle this country made a big ol' mistake. It's time to move on, like the others, who've been selling off their property to Charly Fuller, a wealthy real estate investor.
- The fact that a wealthy man is buying up the land tells Alexandra that there's something worth holding onto, and that the people who are selling and leaving now are probably just bad farmers.
- Meanwhile, Mrs. Bergson has begun to weep quietly. She doesn't want to move again and risk being worse off than they already are.
- Alexandra reminds her mother that they can't sell their property without her consent, according to American law. She asks Mrs. Bergson what the country was like when they first arrived, and Mrs. Bergson exclaims that it was much, much worse.
- The boys get up and storm off. The next day, a Sunday, the boys decide to play cards in the barn instead of going to church.
- When Carl comes by, Alexandra sends him over to talk to them about his departure.
- Alexandra sits inside and reads. She likes to read a few things over and over again, such as the "Frithjof Saga," a Scandinavian epic poem, and poems by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Her mind is slow and deliberate, the narrator tells us, without "the least spark of cleverness" (1.4.36).
- At supper time, Carl comes in with Lou and Oscar. They're all surprised when Alexandra asks Emil if he'd like to accompany her on a trip.
- Alexandra tells them she's decided to take a trip to the river country, to see whether it's worth settling down there instead of on staying on the Divide (the high prairie, where the Bergsons live).
- When Lou doubts whether anyone there would be willing to trade their property with the Bergsons, Alexandra isn't so sure—the grass is always greener.
- Lou just hopes she won't get fooled, though, as the narrator informs us, Lou happens to be into gambling and often gets fooled himself.
- After dinner, Lou goes off to woo Annie Lee, a local girl, and Alexandra sits down to read "The Swiss Family Robinson" to Emil. Soon, the whole family is sitting around her, listening.