Bert Breen's Barn Chapter 58 Summary

  • It takes Birdy and Tom three trips to move the floorboards, timbers, and stringers from the Breen place to Tom's, but they finish that by the end of the week.
  • Tom hires the Moucheauds to help him and Birdy with the hay for his barn.
  • Tom notices that the amount of hay looks sparse spread over the new barn floor, but that it would have filled their old barn to the brim. He'll have to get more meadowland in the future if he wants more cows.
  • Drew, the horse, gets to move into his new stall in the barn first, and the cows are moved in the next evening. Turns out, it's really hard to introduce cows to a new place, especially at night, because they are easily spooked.
  • Who knew? There's an icebreaker for your next party.
  • Tom asks to leave the mill an hour early to get the cows set up, and it ends up going more smoothly than he thought, with the cows acting right at home in their new digs.
  • Polly Ann and Tom milk the cows together, and the girls get the hay for the animals.
  • Tom feels proud because he knows it was his idea that made this all possible. Polly Ann says she's never milked in such a nice barn.
  • Polly Ann suggests that Tom forget about putting in the concrete floor until next summer because the barn is already nice as is.
  • Tom still wants the concrete floor. It seems once you get one thing you want, there's always something else.
  • It's Birdy who finally convinces him to hold off, noting that Tom will need a lot of water to mix the cement. The pump is currently across the yard, but Birdy figures they can put a pipe into the spring on the hillside to run water into the barn, and even into the house. Good thinking.
  • That kind of task can't be done in winter weather, so Tom, at last, decides to hold off on the floor until later.
  • After all, he still has to tear down the Breen house, which was part of his contract with Mr. Armond.