At seven o’clock the next morning, Jurgis shows up at the door of the packing house, ready to work. He waits two hours; the foreman said to show up at the door but did not say anything about entering it. Jurgis is put on the line, sweeping the intestines of the butchered cows into a trap. The atmosphere is hot, the smell is overwhelming, and the blood is deep enough to wade through. It is a heavy work day, so Jurgis works until seven o’clock that night. He is overjoyed that he has made more than a dollar and a half. For several days, this is the regular schedule.

Marija marches through various factories, looking for a job. She is consistently turned away until she impresses a forelady with her size. She is given the job of painting the cans in which tuna is packed, for which she receives two dollars a day because this is considered skilled labor. Jonas also gets a job at the Durham packing house. Jurgis will not allow the other women to work and insists that the children will go to school, which is free in America.

On the way home one evening, Jurgis sees a sign advertising homes for sale. The illustration shows a two-story house with four rooms and a basement. The house costs fifteen hundred dollars, with three hundred down and twelve dollars’ payment a month. The family discusses this possibility. It costs more than rent but at the end they will at least have something. It is decided that, with the salaries of the people now working, they will be able to afford the house payments.

The next day, they visit the agent, who agrees to show them the house that Sunday. When they visit it, they see that it is not finished. They also notice that few of the houses in the division are inhabited. They are concerned that they might be swindled, so they go home to discuss it. The men are unable to go to sign the deed, so Jurgis drills the women on what they should ask and cautions them to refrain from signing anything if they feel that the deal is not right.

When the women and Jokubas go to the agent, Jokubas carefully reads the contract and is dismayed to find that they will be only renting the house until it is paid for. He decides to contact a lawyer but finds that the lawyer knows the agent. This causes them to hesitate, but the lawyer insists that all is according to the regular procedure. They sign the deed, but that evening, when Jurgis reads it, he is irate that they have been tricked. He storms out of the house and consults another lawyer, who assures him that this is the regular procedure, to consider the house rented until it is paid for, which makes it easier to turn out the residents if they fail to meet the monthly payment. Jurgis returns home to find the women overwrought; they thought he went out to murder the agent.