Chapters 10-12 Summary

One summer day, all the women in the house are in a flurry of cleaning, and this makes Bobby nervous, so he heads off to find the Old Man. He finds the Old Man sitting on the decrepit Cedar Bench with other old men, all of them sitting quietly on the dock. The Old Man wants to have a chance to talk with Bobby without disturbing the meditation of his friends, so he gets up and goes a little ways farther down the dock. He explains to Bobby the difference between true laziness, and meditative loafing. He points out that to a casual observer or a woman, he appears to be so lazy he might as well be dead. In reality, though, he is recovering from what he has been through, and storing up for what may come in the future...