Pages 131 - 158 Summary

The orchard keeper wakes up early in the morning and goes outside. Nothing is stirring; everything is quiet. He goes back into house, picks up an old magazine, and drifts into thought while he mechanically turns its pages. It had been snowing, but has just recently stopped. He sees a bright red cardinal dart across the white landscape. After some time, he goes out and begins cutting down and dragging trees to the peach pit where Kenneth Rattner's body was dumped.

Meanwhile, John Wesley meets up with some local kids who are about his age. He only recognizes one, Warn Pulliam, whom he met when he saw the latter playing with a buzzard. The others are Boog and Johnny Romines. They are evidently ought hunting—they have already caught a rabbit—and are going after a skunk they have...