Chapter 20 Summary

Palmer is surprised that Beans agrees to take Palmer and Mutto to his house because Palmer has never been to Beans' house and cannot recall Beans ever talking about his family. Palmer half expects Beans' house to be a shack, or maybe even a hole, and is surprised again to find that Beans lives in a very nice house. Beans guides Palmer and Mutto to the kitchen where Beans retrieves a taped frozen dinner box from the back of the freezer. Beans pulls out the contents of the box to reveal a frozen muskrat and the boys recoil in horror. The muskrat had been presented to Beans by his cat, Panther, and Beans thought the dead animal too good a gift to discard.

After Palmer and Mutto have exhausted their examination of the frozen carcass, Beans has a brilliant idea with which they...