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Janie meets Tea Cake in Jacksonville. He has been working there. She takes the train there, and he is there waiting for her. They leave the station and get married that night. It is a night of making love. Janie takes Pheoby's advice and brings $200 along with her, but she doesn't tell Tea Cake that she has it. Tea Cake spends his own money on Janie the whole time.

Tea Cake leaves early in the morning to get fish for Janie for breakfast. Janie wakes up, gets dressed, and has coffee with the land lady. It gets late and Janie goes back to her room. She realizes that her $200 is gone. She worries all night long because Tea Cake still hasn't come home. In the morning, he comes home with a guitar. Tea Cake says he took the money because he wanted to know what it felt like to be a millionaire.

He throws a free feast with dancing and singing for the people where he used to work. Janie says that she would have liked to go to the party, but Tea Cake says that he doesn't want her to see any commonness in him; she is too good for that. Janie doesn't care about that; she just wants to be with Tea Cake. He promises to win back her money by gambling.

That week, Tea Cake practices rolling dice and shuffling cards. He goes off to play and Janie waits for him to come home. When he arrives home, he is cut and bleeding. While Janie fixes him up, he tells her what happened. He won everyone's money, $322, and one of the men got really angry and cut him. Tea Cake cut the man in defense. Janie tells him about the $1200 she has in the bank, but he says he doesn't want her money. Whatever he makes will be fine for them to live on. He tells Janie that they're going to the Everglades to work on the muck, where they raise sugar cane, string beans, and tomatoes. On the muck, people make money and have fun. Janie is more in love with Tea Cake than ever.