Chapter 15 Summary

Jody drifts off to sleep and endures a terrifying dream about confronting a gigantic rattlesnake that strikes at him even as his father lies under the snake's coils, swollen and dead. Then he is alone in a vast, windy place, holding the fawn in his arms. He father is gone, and his heart aches so, he thinks it will break. Then he awakens.

Penny has "made it," the doctor says. Ma cries from relief. When Doc proclaims Jody a man, able to plow and hunt, Ma says he is only a boy who wants to prowl and play, and his father encourages him. He hangs his head, knowing it is true.

Now Pa needs milk and, for the first time, Jody volunteers to do the milking. He is up and at work at the hour his father usually rises, celebrating the morning, so...