Fall and Winter Summary

Fall starts off pleasantly enough, Eldon explains, but he actually hates the season. The trip to the lake is a break from the hard work and the family enjoys a leisurely day eating and talking and swimming. The spot they visit is a favorite of Eldon's parents, and a place they visited together when they were courting. There is a tree nearby on which his father once carved their names. The family eats steaks and pork chops and returns home well after dark.

After the trip to the lake, however, is butchering time, and this is why Eldon hates the fall. Each year his father kills a steer, shooting it with a rifle and pulling its body up in the barn to butcher it. This is horrible enough, Edlon explains, but butchering the pigs is much worse. Nels and...