Chapter Seventeen Summary

Ginny's next baby, a girl named Fay, is born in October. She is the smallest baby and Ginny knows she will be the last. She and Tom still are not really speaking as Ginny is not interested in forgiving him since he pulled a gun on her. One day, Tom comes running into the house shouting that the pastures are on fire. Ginny gives the baby to Jewel and rushes out to help fight the fire. When she gets to the pasture, Ginny sees Pa standing with a pine switch, trying to swat away the fire. She worries that he is too old to be doing such dangerous work and shouts for him to go back inside. Pa refuses. Feeling torn between helping Tom and watching Pa, Ginny reluctantly leaves Pa and runs to help Tom shovel sod onto the fire...