As January nears, Mrs. Müller decides to go to Mrs. Griffith’s to fetch the children’s’ things. William offers, but she is determined to take the responsibility of caring for his siblings off his shoulders. When she returns, she is emotional about not stepping in sooner to remove the children from Mrs. Griffith’s neglect.

She picked up a paper on the way back with a picture of St. Paul’s Cathedral cloaked in smoke on the front page. William panics and must leave the room; Edmund stays with him silently while he works through the worst of the panic. The two discuss how you can tell when you’ve found a good mother and decide that “you know you’ve got the right mum when you find one that thinks you hung the moon” (257).

When school returns, the children reconvene with their peers. Frances tries to elicit compliments from William about her new dress, while Hugh gives Edmund a piece of chocolate in payment for the chocolate Edmund gave him on their first day in town. Miss Carr catches Edmund calling her “Carr-buncle” and assigns him to write 500 lines of the definition of “carbuncle” for homework.

After William and Anna go to bed, Mrs. Müller stays up with Edmund while he writes his lines.