Calvin plans to paint a mural to replicate the Shaft of the Dead Man from the Cave of Lascaux. The boys also brainstorm a good cap for the light shaft, but they don’t have any ideas. It is time for Calvin to go home, so the boys hose off. Moonie appears, and he plays in the water with them. Mason walks Calvin home, and then he walks Moonie back to the Drinker’s house through the orchard. They walk past the old tree fort, which still pains Mason to see: “Still hard to look at that spot. The missing ladder. And Benny at the bottom” (131). He wishes Benny could meet Calvin and see the changes in Merrimack. Mason drops Moonie off with Mrs. Drinker, and he agrees to watch Moonie over the Columbus Day Weekend. Then, he goes home for supper. 

In the SWOOF, Calvin shows Mason the mural of the aurochs, an ancient ox that has now gone extinct. Mason loves the aurochs: “I don’t know why I get such a feeling about that animal, but it is like he is me. Like if he had come to school, he would be the biggest thing in the hallway.