- We're about to take a pretty big leap in time, but first our trusty narrator gets us up to speed on what happened since Percy's death.
- For starters, Judge Driscoll's wife died shortly after Tom came to live with them and the Judge's childless sister Mrs. Pratt stepped in to help raise him.
- As for Tom, he continued to be a jerk until he went to college at Yale (wow, maybe it's not so hard to get into that place after all).
- Miracles do happen: Tom became a little less of a jerk while he was away at school. But he was super lazy and after two years, he dropped out and returned home to be mooch off his rich uncle. To top it off, he's also developed quite the gambling habit.
- Judge Driscoll retired and became president of the Free-thinkers' Society, a club with a grand total of two members including the judge himself and Pudd'nhead.
- We're introduced to the widow Cooper, better known as "Aunt Patsy," a resident of Dawson's Landing, and her daughter Rowena.
- Aunt Patsy's been trying to rent out one of the rooms in her house for some extra income, but she hasn't had much luck (too bad Craigslist wasn't around yet).
- But one day Patsy receives a letter from an Italian guy who's been living in the U.S. for a few years and wants to rent out the room with his twin brother (and no, it's not these Italian brothers).
- Patsy and Rowena are elated. And they're not the only ones. Before long, the whole town has heard the news and is super excited that these Italian twins, Luigi and Angelo, are going to be staying in Dawson's Landing.
- The townspeople wait up all night to try and catch a glimpse of the twins (sure it's a little weird, but remember that this story takes place in the days before people got their entertainment from watching hilarious animal videos on YouTube).
- But the residents don't get to see the twins arrive because there's a big storm that night. At last they get to Aunt Patsy's house. And, yes, they look just as awesome as everyone expected.