- Tom drives home, feeling that both he and his horse will be happy when the work at the Breen property is over.
- Back home, Polly Ann tells Tom she's been thinking about the time she saw Mr. Breen in the barn since telling the story over lunch. Like mother, like son.
- Tom tells her they better wait until after supper to discuss it so that no one overhears them.
- Tom knows he will need someone to help him get the money, so that night, he tells Polly Ann that he figures it's in the floor underneath the cow stalls.
- Polly Ann is impressed with his brains.
- Tom explains that rather than getting it right away, he should wait until they finish tearing down the house in November. He figures by then the Flanchers will see there is nothing in the house and that they won't be likely to be waiting out in the cold and dark anyway. He also worries about Parker Munsey showing up, which is why he needs Polly Ann to go with him. He wants to take a route that no one will be watching.
- Polly Ann readily knows a route they can take from her berry-collecting days. She's not worried or afraid about taking the route at night.
- Tom asks if Polly Ann had talked to Mr. Hook about all this. She hasn't, just as Tom hasn't talked to Birdy.
- Tom suggests Mr. Hook might ask Polly Ann to marry him. She blushes and says she would refuse if he did because "A person from as poor as we are has no right to marry a wealthy man like him" (42.48).
- Now that's no way to talk for believers in the American Dream.