The Silent Boy

Katy’s grandmother travels by train from Cincinnati. Katy and her father pick up “Gram” at the train station, and Katy tells her recent town news, including the mill fire and how her father saved the burn victims. She tells Gram that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. At the house Gram gives gifts for the soon-to-arrive baby; to Katy she gives the book Elsie Dinsmore. Katy takes Gram up to her room, where they talk about the baby on the way and how it’s more important that the baby is healthy than whether it is a boy or girl. Katy notices Gram’s black choker necklace, which she wears as a sign of mourning for her deceased husband, who died when Katy’s father was a young boy. Katy tells Gram about Peggy and Nell, which reminds Katy of something she saw between Nell and Paul in the Bishops’ barn. She pushes the thought from her mind as it is too uncomfortable for her.

Austin comes over to play, and Katy mentions that they only play together at home. Although they are in the same class at school, boys and girls don’t play together there. At Katy’s house they play an imagination game called “Tragedy and Disaster” where they act out things like shipwrecks and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Austin and Katy get lost in their games together and seem to have a very strong friendship based on shared interests.

Peggy wakes Katy early on a Sunday morning, telling Katy she has a surprise for her. Peggy has packed a picnic breakfast and loads Katy up in the buggy. Peggy tells Katy that she is taking her to the Stoltz farm for the day. Katy asks why they don’t bring Nell too, and Peggy responds that “Nellie never goes home […] it really frets my ma” (127). Katy decides that Nell should start going to the library with her and Peggy, but Peggy thinks Nell wouldn’t care for the idea. They arrive at the Stoltz farm, and Peggy’s mom prepares breakfast for them. Jacob and his father join, and Katy is surprised that Jacob does not look at or acknowledge her. Mr. Stoltz demands that Jacob remove his cap at the table; he is very stern with Jacob. After breakfast Peggy shows Katy around the house. As they pass by Peggy’s mother, she tells Peggy that Floyd Lehman wants to know if she is home for a visit. Peggy is embarrassed to have an admirer and tells her mother not to let him know she’s home.

The girls walk down to the river, and Katy meets Jacob’s brown-and-white dog. Peggy says Jacob raised it from a puppy after its mother died, and now it follows him everywhere. Peggy takes Katy to their barn to see the new lambs. One mother has two baby lambs, and Katy asks if they are twins. One of the lambs was rejected by its mother, so Jacob coaxed another sheep mother to take the rejected lamb as her own. Although the lamb is “runty,” Jacob’s hard work saved the baby, and it will now survive with its adoptive mother. Mr. Stoltz comes in and tells Peggy that Jacob is waiting for Katy in the barn loft. Katy climbs up to find him looking out a window. Although he does not look at her, she speaks to him anyway and wishes to express her condolences for the death of one of his horses, but she can’t do it. Instead she asks what he has for her. Jacob rocks back and forth to show that he is happy and points into the hay. He has a kitten for Katy. Katy carries her kitten with her for the rest of the day, and it sleeps in her lap during lunch. The phone rings, and Peggy’s mother says it is Dr. Thatcher, asking Peggy to bring Katy home. When she arrives home, Katy finds that her mother has given birth to a baby girl named Mary. When she learns the name of her new sister she is reminded of Mary Goldstein, the girl who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, and knows what she should name her kitten: Goldstein, or Goldy for short.