- Jody is running away from home.
- He is determined to go to Jacksonville, and from there to Boston, where he'll go to sea with Oliver.
- He hitches a boat ride with a fisherman to Nellie Ginright's cabin, so he can use her old broken-down boat.
- When he gets there, he fixes it up as best he can, and starts paddling. It's going to be a loooong trip.
- Jody is still totally horrified at Flag's death and feels like his Pa betrayed him.
- He camps out that night, starving but nauseated at the thought of Flag's carcass.
- The next morning, he continues paddling along. When his boat starts taking on water, so he paddles back to shore in a panic.
- Now he's lost and still starving. Like, actually starving. He keeps paddling until he finds an abandoned cabin.
- There's just some flour there—but Jody is so desperate, he mixes it with water and eats it. He sleeps there that night.
- The next day, he finally sees some other ships, but when he waves at them, they don't respond.
- Exhausted, he collapses, sobbing, and then faints.
- Finally, some sailors pick him up and feed him. They bring him back into town, and tell him to go home.
- He heads home, not knowing what else to do.
- On his way, he finds the place where he had built the flutter-mill last April, and decides to build another. But he doesn't enjoy it anymore. Hm. It's almost like he's been growing up.
- Suddenly he can't wait to get back to his Pa.
- He runs home and enters, to see his Pa sitting hunched over by the fire.
- Penny can't believe he's home, and Jody can't believe he's still wanted.
- Ma has gone to get more corn seed from the Forresters.
- Jody eats, and tells Penny what he's done.
- He tells him he'll take over the farm work now, and Penny can tell he's grown up.
- Penny talks with him, man to man, about how hard life is.
- Jody helps him to bed, and thinks of his chores in the morning. Neither Flag nor his Pa will be there to help him, but that's okay—he can handle it now.
- He dreams of Flag, and of a boy and a yearling, running into the forest, never to return.