Dick sets off aboard the Unicorn. Dick’s cat instructs him to send a token to Mary with this message: “If you don’t know me, you know nobody” (162). Dick has a small seashell engraved with Mary’s face and sends it to Fitzwarren with instructions to have it delivered to Mary without telling her who it is from.

Gent, a male duck, comes to the barn, attracting the Lady’s attention; soon after, she lays eggs and hatches ducklings. Whittington also becomes a parent when the cat up the road whom he’s been seeing has kittens.

Ben begins Reading Recovery. Miss O’Brian helps him manage his frustration in addition to improving his reading skills, and Ben’s blow-ups stop.

One of Whittington’s kittens tangles herself in a string dangling from a hay bale. The string wraps around her neck, choking her. The Old One gnaws her free, saving her life. “Tit for tat,” he responds to the Lady’s thanks, echoing the words of the rat in the fable.