The Children get a Ouija board from Ike. Olivia and Grandma have misgivings about the children playing with it and speaking to it's spirits.

A traveling salesman named George Reed talks Olivia into buying a 5 foot collection of books called The Harvard Classics. George uses the down payment to buy his daughter a doll.

Sally Ann Harper has eyes for Jason but Ben falls in love with her. Grandpa and John enter a billiard competition at Ike's store

Ben gets angry and leaves home at the same time Grandpa and John enter a competition with another lumber mill for the big contract. Without knowing, Ben goes to work for the other firm. Grandpa devises a clever scheme to get their lumber to market first.

Olivia and the two youngest children, Jim-Bob and Elizabeth, go up on Walton's Mountain and become lost. They experience many challenges. Jim-Bob saves the day using woodsman skills taught to him by Grandpa.

Jason falls in love with Vanessa, Curt's sister, who left her husband so she could become a singer. John-Boy begins to publish sections of his novel in the newspaper.

A young minister comes and causes some uneasiness within the congregation

John finds out that the family is almost out of debt so everybody pitches in on a big contract. During the mortgage burning party, Ike Godsey says that the bank will forclosing on the store. Olivia and John come to the rescue.