Chapter 2 Summary

The next morning Penny, upon awakening, recalls Jody's disobedience yesterday in going to the Glen instead of hoeing the corn. Perhaps he should have "crawled him about it," he thinks, but boyhood is too short, Penny realizes. He muses on his own life as he lies next to his large, sleeping wife. He recalls a boyhood as the son of a stern preacher who expected endless toil from his children. He even remembers how Lem Forrester gave him his nickname: "You're good money a'right, but hit just don't come no smaller, Leetle ol' Penny Baxter."

Penny has lived a life of scrupulous honesty. He chose to live in the scrub country rather than on the river amidst the bickering humans, feeling more at home among the animals than among people. He married in his thirties, cleared this land (bought from the Forresters), and...