The Yearling

The Yearling Summary | Plot Summary

Jody Baxter is a carefree boy, the only surviving child of Ezra ("Penny") and Ora Baxter. The story opens in April of Jody's twelfth year, in the early 1870's, to find him enjoying the simple life in the lush scrub country of northeast Florida. At every opportunity, Jody leaves his work to dawdle the day away, wanting for only one thing: a pet that will love him and follow him. While his father indulges his childhood urges, his mother remains cool and stern.

A clever old bear has been tormenting farmers in the area, and Penny has promised Jody that the two of them will hunt "Old Slewfoot." When the bear kills a precious brood sow, father and son track the wily thief, only to see him escape. They travel together to their nearest neighbors, the Forresters, where Penny trades a little dog for a more reliable gun and Jody is reunited with his only playmate, Fodder Wing. After a thrilling evening of hunting tales, Penny leaves Jody to spend a rare night with his friend, enjoying the boy's collection of tamed creatures. The night is marked by strange and wonderful revelry as Jody sees how the Forresters live, so differently from his own family.

Life on Baxter Island is hard by contrast, but Jody could be content, if only he had that pet. As the spring turns to summer, Penny teaches Jody to study and appreciate nature. Jody observes playful young animals, knowing he must have a loving pet. On a trading trip to Volusia, father and son visit Penny's lifetime companion, Grandma Hutto. Here Jody experiences another contrasting lifestyle, clean and comfortable, but his heart is still in the snug cabin in the clearing. A conflict arises between the Huttos and the Forresters, and Jody and Penny are drawn into a feud that will simmer on.

Shortly after, tracking their missing hogs, Penny is struck by a rattlesnake. Miraculously a doe appears, and Penny shoots her, cutting out her organs to make a drawing poultice. As Jody runs several miles to the Forresters for help, he spots a tiny, shivering fawn and recalls his need for a pet. He realizes that Penny has just killed the baby's mother.

Amazingly, Penny recovers as Buck Forrester, with Jody's help, kindly takes over much of the work. Jody is allowed to find the little fawn and bring it home. As the hot summer passes, the Baxter fortunes seesaw between hardship and plenty, but Jody has his loving pet. When Fodder Wing dies suddenly, the dead boy's mother assures Jody that her son had named the fawn "Flag," and so it shall be.

In fall a vicious storm pounds the scrub, causing miles of flooding any wildlife not drowned faces starvation, and crops are rotting. Neighbors together survey the damage, and Jody proudly shoots his first bear. Now a plague ravages the wildlife, and the family faces its most serious threat, fighting now for survival. Just as Penny falls ill with fever, Old Slewfoot returns to steal one of their hogs. Flag, moreover, has become more mischievous and a constant source of irritation to Ma.

When early winter frosts find the family around their cozy hearth, Penny recovers his strength and confidence, feeling they will prevail. Then a pack of hungry wolves invades, stealing their calf, and the clearing is no longer the secure fortress Jody imagined it to be. Father and son join with the Forresters to kill off nearly all the remaining wolves, and Jody plays a key and successful role in the hunt.

Close to Christmas, with plans for a Christmas trip to Volusia, Old Slewfoot returns to steal the newborn heifer calf. Penny grimly commits to hunting and killing the bear, Christmas or no, and Jody and Flag accompany him on a three-day journey of bone-chilling cold and deprivation. Penny shoots the bear and the family does end up at the Christmas party in town, as do the Forresters. Tragedy strikes again as Grandma Hutto's house goes up in flames. The Forresters are clearly responsible, but justice will never be served. The cautious friendship between the two neighboring families is irreparably wounded.

A mild, serene January brings father and son ever closer, and even Ma "thaws" a bit. In February, however, Penny's rheumatism strikes and Jody must take on the responsibility for the fields. Now he is constantly badgered by the annoying, sometimes destructive, behavior of Flag. March finds Penny restored to health, returning to the fields to plant. He and Jody work side by side for a happy week, and then Penny suffers a hernia and is bedridden, in constant pain, for the foreseeable future. Jody becomes the man of the house, working to exhaustion. Unfortunately, Flag has become an actual threat to their survival, destroying the corn crop repeatedly. Jody works feverishly to raise a higher fence, but Flag jumps it with ease. Finally, in exquisite anguish, Penny commands his son to tie the deer and shoot it. When Jody is unable to comply, his mother is commanded to do the deed, and she does it poorly, wounding the creature horribly. Jody must kill his pet now in order to put it out of its misery.

After firing the horrific shot, Jody runs from home, hurling epithets of hatred at his parents. He endures three terrifying days and nights in the woods and on the water, bound for Jacksonville and, ultimately, for Boston where the Huttos have relocated. Near starvation and in a faint, he is rescued, fed, and set back on his way home. When his morale sinks to its lowest, feeling as if the world has cast him off, he suddenly thinks of his loving father and knows that his place is in the clearing where he was raised. He returns to a loving and forgiving father who recognizes that Jody has passed through the "yearling" stage and is now a young man.