A Season of Gifts

The story is broken up into three parts: The Last House in Town, The Fall of the Year, and E'er the Winter Storms begin.

This part of the book is started with a long narrative, in which he talks about a haunted melon patch in Mrs. Dowdel's backyard.

Later, Mrs. Dowdel and Cora Shellabarger knock on the Barnhart house and tells Bob's family that his older sister, Phyllis, has fallen in love with one of the bullies who dipped Bobby in the crick, got drunk, and was left by the bully in the remains of a car crash at the Shellabargers' front steps.

The third part of the book starts off talking about the local convenience store and how the veterans of foreign war sell Christmas trees there.

With Mrs. Wilcox in the backseat and Mrs. Dowdel in the shotgun seat, Bobby is given the task of driving; as his parents are both busy.