- Even though the squirrels and rabbits mock him (figuratively—no talking squirrels here), Matt gets used to life without a rifle. He eats fish and berries, works on the garden, and gets excited for his family's return in a few weeks.
- After some successful morning fishing, he comes home to see the front door of the cabin swinging open with a broken hinge.
- Freaking out, he races to the cabin and sees the insane mess: flour everywhere, stools overturned, and the keg of molasses upside-down and empty.
- Matt's first thought is that Ben must have come back, but then he realizes that Ben's a food lover, not a waster. Next he wonders if it was the Indians, but then he figures that humans wouldn't make such a pigsty and figures it was a bear.
- Matt also realizes that this mess it at least partially his fault—he must have left the door unlocked.
- After feeling paralyzed with anger at himself, Matt finally scrapes up two handfuls of flour from the floor and cooks his fish with a few grains of salt.
- He knows that the fish will keep him alive, but almost everything else is gone.