Sarah, Plain and Tall Chapter 5 Summary

  • When Sarah sees the sheep up close, she totally adores them. She pets them, names them after her favorite aunts, and sings to them. It's basically true love.
  • Sarah's utterly devastated when she finds a lamb that's died. Jacob has to come out to help her bury it.
  • That night, Sarah draws pictures to send back to her family in Maine. She also tells the children more about the landscape by the sea and how she misses all the sand dunes.
  • Jacob tells them all to come out to the barn to see their dunes, a.k.a. the hay stacks. He leans a ladder up against the highest haystack and Sarah climbs up and throws herself into the hay.
  • She says it's a great dune, and the kids start clambering up the ladder to jump onto the hay stack, too. Aw.
  • When they get back inside, Sarah writes to her brother and tells him about their hay dune—and how it's almost as fine as what can be found by the sea.