After Timmy gets a ""real shiner"" in a fight, Ruth can't understand the self-respect he's gained with his larger classmates and forbids him to play football with them.

After Paul refuses to consider selling his land to a real estate broker, someone ruins his tomato crop and sets fire to his hay.

Timmy befriends José, a new Spanish boy in school (the other boys keep calling him "Josie"), but doesn't know what to do when José's pet coyote Taquita is accused of killing Mr. Ransom's chickens.