Chapter IV Summary

Sam takes the end of World War II as a sign that his personal luck has changed for the better, and he becomes desperate to gamble. Playing the Australian coin-flipping game called two-up, he gets so far ahead of a union boss that the man has to give him a job, working at the mint. His new work brings happiness to the family, and when Sam starts gambling on the horses again, he sticks to a horse named Blackbutt, who keeps winning. He buys Rose a wooden desk, which reduces her to tears. He wins a talking cockatoo named Sam that rides on his shoulder. Meanwhile, Quick Lamb reads lists of men missing in action and other tales of misery, all of which attract him. Carefully watching two poor brothers at school who bend far over their food when they eat...