Summary
Chapter Six
The Tucks put Winnie on the back of their horse and start running away from the spring, essentially "kidnapping" the young girl. Winnie doesn't have time to be frightened, and notices that her "kidnappers," the Tucks, are far more frightened than she is. They pass the man in the yellow suit on the road, and Mae says that they're just giving their little girl some riding lessons.
They stop to rest by a shallow stream. Winnie, who did not plan on being spirited away by strangers when she left her house this morning, starts to cry. Mae tries to reassure her, but Winnie is inconsolable. Miles says they should have had a better plan for when something like this happened. Mae takes out her little music box, and the music calms Winnie. Winnie remarks that her grandmother calls this tune elf music, but Mae says it's just her little music box.
With Winnie calmed, Jesse says they are going to explain the whole situation to her.
Chapter Seven
The Tucks seem excited to tell the story, and often interrupt each other to speak. The family came to Treegap 87 years ago, and the Tuck family and their horse drank from the little spring that Winnie saw by the big tree. They moved on to open country and eventually established a farm. However, they began to realize that they were unaffected by nearly fatal accidents. Jesse fell out of a tree onto his head but was uninjured; next the horse was shot by hunters but the bullet just passed through him. As the years passed, they were also stunned to find that they didn't age at all. Their friends in the community grew suspicious that they were using black magic to stay young, and Miles' wife eventually left him because she was sure that he had made a pact with the devil to prevent aging.
The Tucks left their community and wandered back to Treegap. They stumbled upon the spring again. They realized that their cat - who had not drank from the spring - had aged and died normally, while the rest of them - the Tucks and their horse - were ageless and immune to injury. They began to wonder if it was the spring that had done this to them. To be sure, Angus Tuck shoots himself in the chest with a shotgun, and discovers that the bullet just passes right through him.
The Tucks explain how harmful it could be if the rest of the world ever found out about the spring. Angus Tuck theorizes that the spring is something left over from some other plan for the way the world should be. They aren't sure how the spring works, but they know that they will remain the same until the end of the world.
Chapter Eight
Winnie is not an imaginative child, and she doesn't know what to make of this story. However, the Tucks seem so happy to have finally told their deep secret to someone else. They explain that there is both good and bad to being immortal, and that they need her to keep their secret.
Mae decides that they should take her to their home and have her meet Angus Tuck. Winnie decides there is nothing to fear from the Tucks (they seem gentle and almost childlike), so she agrees to go with them. She also finds herself wanting to spend more time with Jesse.
The group heads merrily through the woods. Winnie wonders if she should someday drink the water and become immortal, but then decides that she has plenty of time to think about this decision.
However, none of them have noticed that the man in the yellow suit crept up behind them in the bushes and heard the whole story, or that he has begun to follow them.
Chapter Nine
Winnie and the Tuck family head back to the Tuck homestead. Winnie begins to get a sunburn, so Mae puts her blue sunhat on the child. They walk for a long time through the countryside until they finally arrive at the homely little red house.
There is a lake nearby, and Miles and Jesse run in. Angus Tuck is shocked to see that they have brought home a child, but he is also pleased to see Winnie, and says that this is the best thing that has happened for a very long time. Mae explains that Winnie knows their secret, and Tuck says that this is the finest thing that has happened in eighty years.
Chapter Ten
Winnie's mother and grandmother keep their house tidy, so she is used to order and organization. The Tuck's house, however, is somewhat chaotic - dishes are stacked hazardously, dust covers the home, and objects cover every surface of the house. There is also a little workshop where the Tucks keep the objects they make to sell. Still, the house is pleasant and there are bowls of daisies everywhere. Winnie wonders if the house is so messy because the Tucks know that they have forever to clean up.
Mae explains that the boys like to wander from place to place and do different jobs. Mae and Tuck have lived in this house for about twenty years, and expect that they should be moving on soon. They like the location near the pond, and they have the ability to go into town if they need anything. Winnie observes that it must be lonely, not being able to have friends, but Mae replies that she and Tuck have each other. The boys, however, seem to struggle with their immortality a little more. But every ten years, in the first week of August, the Tuck family enjoys a reunion.
Mae muses that life has to be lived, no matter how long or short it is. She doesn't know why the Tucks have been given this immortality, because they are just simple people. She remarks that the boys will be coming in from the pond shortly, and sure enough, Jesse and Miles show up dripping wet. The Tucks and Winnie prepare to eat dinner.
Analysis
Readers finally discover the nature of the spring mentioned in the Prologue, as well as the cause behind the immortality of the Tucks. The Tucks do not age and cannot be harmed by any outside force, such as bullets or accidents, after drinking from a peculiar spring in the woods near Treegap. The exact process by which the spring causes immortality is not clear - Tuck and Jesse suggest that the spring is "left over from [...] some other plan for the way the world should be" (p. 41), a mysterious statement that suggests cosmic and unanswerable mysteries.
In Chapter Five, the reader was introduced Winnie and Jessie, and the two begin to experience a growing attraction to each other. Their meeting was also characterized by humor and irony, when Winnie exclaims that the (apparently) seventeen-year-old Jesse is old, and he replies that she has no idea.
Mae's music box is an important symbol, signaling the homely, gentle nature of the Tucks. As the only beautiful thing that Mae owns, it reminds her of the happier elements of immortality and also indicates the presence of the Tucks to ordinary mortals. Mae offers this beautiful object to Winnie to calm her down after the Tucks accidentally kidnap her to keep her away from the spring.
Tucks are an unusual depiction of immortal beings. They live private, simple lives, and their personalities do not seem to have been deeply changed by their apparent immortality. They do kidnap Winnie, but this is because they want to take her away from the spring water before she drinks it. They do not seek to acquire wealth or influence, nor do they engage in any particularly risky behavior due to their immunity to death. Though Miles and Jesse often travel and work odd jobs, the Tucks seek to live quiet lives in the country rather than utilizing their immortality to influence the events that shape mortal lives.
However, this section - particularly Chapter Seven, in which the Tucks describe being driven out of their little farming community after not aging for twenty years - introduces the reader to the pros and cons of immortality. The Tucks can't be harmed by common and potentially fatal accidents, but they also cannot keep any friends. The friends they did have became suspicious after witnessing their immunity to aging, and making new friends would likely mean revealing the nature of the spring, which could cause numerous problems. In particular, the father Angus Tuck seems to actively dislike his immortality.
