- Vernon Tull tries to mollify Anse’s concerns, assuring him that Jewel and Darl will be back in time and that he’s worrying for nothing. Anse only says that Addie is set on dying.
- Tull muses that women are different, and that their lives are difficult. He remembers his own mother’s death as a weary decision to finally rest after a lifetime of hard work.
- Vardaman, the youngest Bundren son, comes back from fishing with a giant fish he’s caught. He’s about to go into the house to show Addie when his father calls him back, ordering him to clean the fish.
- Vardaman argues that Dewey Dell can do it, but Anse is persistent. Cursing, the boy takes the fish away.
- Vernon, as others before him, comments that Anse never sweats.
- It is five o’clock. Cora comes out and she and Tull’s family prepares to head home for the evening.
- Anse goes inside to look at his dying wife.
- On the way out, they pass Cash, who's trimming boards. Vernon notices that Cash doesn’t work so hard when he’s working at his barn.
- As the Tulls ride away in a wagon, the women note how Darl and Cash will be up for marriage soon…and Jewel, too, though Kate remarks that "there’s more gals than one around here that don’t want to see Jewel tied down."
- And Kate goes back to talking about the cakes.