Lou and Oz spend their first evening in their new home getting used to stacking wood and the absence of running water. Diamond brings a stringer of fish for dinner, and he joins the family for supper. Lou asks Louisa to show her the land because she wants to learn about it the way her father did. Louisa cautions that a person needs to understand the land, not simply see it: “It got lots of secrets, and not all good ones. Things up here hurt you bad if you ain’t careful” (72).

Diamond says some men have been coming around the area, asking questions about coal mines. Louisa hints that they’re up to no good and cautions the children to report anything they hear about the strangers to her. 

After dinner, Diamond, Lou, and Oz go outside, where Diamond promises to show them a haunted well. As they make their way to it, they’re accosted by a man with a shotgun. Lou recognizes him as the tractor driver who nearly drove them off the road earlier that day. The man threatens them at gunpoint until the scream of a mountain lion, known as Old Mo, sends them all running away.