- Since all four of them are now covered in pigeon poop, Billy and Georgie ride their mounts into the Wisconsin River for an overdue bath.
- Georgie goes upstream to bathe in private, but she gets super nervous again when she's on her own. She feels the same way when Billy leaves her later to take his own bath—cougars could be anywhere.
- That night around the campfire, Georgie thinks about what a cutie Billy McCabe actually is: She understands now what all the girls see in him, and she feels kind of nervous.
- She tries to make some canned biscuits, which end up hard as a rock. (It's news to us that canned biscuits existed in 1871, but we guess everyone loves a quick and easy meal.)
- Georgie pumps Billy for information about his relationship with Agatha, but he's not talking, and instead he just says he loves Polly Barfod now, and he's going to marry her.
- He says Agatha turned him down for good that day in February when the pigeons came.
- Georgie thinks he's hiding something, though.
- Georgie remembers that she knew she shouldn't tell Mr. Olmstead about that kiss in May, but she really felt he had a right to know—and of course, she wanted to break them up and have Agatha all to herself.
- She recalls that Mr. Olmstead's office reflected his love of books and birds and maybe he and Agatha were totally a legit couple, after all.
- She recaps their conversation and remembers that a couple of days later Agatha stopped speaking to her and said she couldn't marry a man (Mr. O) who didn't trust her.
- Georgie kind of blames herself for telling Mr. Olmstead, thus setting in motion a series of events that led to her sister's death. Yep, she probably should have minded her own business.
- Billy and Georgie get into a tiff over whom Billy loves/loved: Agatha or Polly, and whether or not Georgie is too young to understand anything.
- Georgie cleans her rifle, and Billy says he likes her when they're not fighting, so they shouldn't fight.
- She's still too scared of cougars to sleep, so Billy puts the tent up around her and promises to sleep at the opening with his repeater.
- Georgie dreams about Agatha, and when she does, she's trying to hold Agatha's hand, but she can't hold on.