Pony

When Ollerenshaw threatens the officers again, they gag him. As they travel back toward town, Ollerenshaw constantly glares at Silas in a way that scares him, which Silas thinks is unusually cruel. Silas begins to cry, and Mittenwool allows Ollerenshaw to hear his voice but not to see him. He tells Ollerenshaw to leave Silas alone and then repeatedly calls him a murderer. Ollerenshaw looks around. Seeing nobody, he becomes distraught. Mittenwool tells Ollerenshaw that if he ever goes near Silas again, he will be perpetually haunted by all the people he murdered.

The group gets closer to Rosasharon, and when Sheriff Chalfont realizes that Silas has no one to stay with in Boneville, he invites Silas to stay with him and his wife, Jenny. Both Silas and Chalfont are glad that Silas was able to see Pa one last time. Chalfont asks Silas who Mittenwool is because he heard Pa ask Silas if Mittenwool was around. Silas says that Mittenwool is an imaginary friend. Chalfont says that his sister used to have imaginary friends as a child, but as a teenager, she stopped mentioning them. Chalfont’s dad was an abolitionist minister and moved their family to Kansas so they could vote against the expansion of enslavement. When Matilda died in a fight between abolitionists and proponents of enslavement, Chalfont was devastated.

Silas says that the connections between people do not break even with death. He asks if Matilda liked plum pudding, which catches Chalfont’s attention. Silas conveys the message that sometimes, she ate more than her share, and she feels sorry about this. Matilda has been walking nearby, but after her message is delivered, she disappears.

Ollerenshaw’s capture is major news because he ran a counterfeiting ring that stretched from Ohio to Maryland. The reports say that his most recent counterfeit bills were his best work, but they don’t mention Martin Bird or Mac Boat (Pa), which pleases Silas. Ollerenshaw is sentenced to life in prison and starts hearing voices in his cell. The newspaper lists all of Ollerenshaw’s murder victims, which includes Marshal Enoch Farmer in 1854, six years before Silas met him. This reveals that Farmer was a ghost, although Silas didn’t realize it at the time.

Silas goes to live with Sheriff Chalfont and Jenny. One morning, Argos the dog appears, having been led there by Mittenwool. Silas is delighted, and the Chalfonts let Silas keep the dog.

Silas and the Chalfonts discover that Jenny knew Silas’s mother when she was a child. The Chalfonts ask about Silas’s violin, and Jenny says she took violin lessons as a child in Philadelphia, but she was bad at it. She suspects that her teacher, Elsa Morrow, only kept teaching her because they were neighbors and Elsa was nice. Silas doesn’t know his mother’s former surname, but Desimonde writes to his lawyer friend in Philadelphia, who pulls court records and discovers that Elsa became Elsa Bird when she married Martin Bird. Therefore, Silas’s mother was Jenny’s friend, neighbor, and violin teacher when they were young. Jenny is delighted and believes that Elsa must have engineered their meeting. She wants Silas to live with them long term and become part of their family. Silas feels like he’s “home” for the first time in a long time, even though it’s a different home.

Silas lives with Desimonde and Jenny for six years. When he turns 18, he leaves to attend college in Maine. During that time, they love him like their own child and provide for him well. He attends school in Rosasharon and has a nice teacher who doesn’t know that he can see ghosts and doesn’t bully him. Desimonde and Jenny have two daughters, Marianne and Elsa (Elsie), who are like sisters to Silas. Elsie seems to be able to see Mittenwool as a baby, but when she becomes a toddler, she stops interacting with him. As Silas gets older, he can still see and hear Mittenwool, but he doesn’t interact with him as often because he’s busy with the world of the living. Silas surpasses Mittenwool in height because Mittenwool remains 16, the age he was when he died.

Mittenwool and Pony accompany Silas on his journey to college. Silas leaves Ollerenshaw’s horse, which he inherited, for Marianne and Elsie.

Silas says goodbye to the Chalfonts at the train station, promising to return for Christmas. He also says goodbye to Beautyman, with whom he has become good friends. Both Sheriff Chalfont and Deputy Beautyman fought on the Union side in the Civil War, and Beautyman was badly injured and was hospitalized for a year. While visiting him in the hospital, Silas met the ghost of another soldier named Peter, who was Beautyman’s beloved. Silas conveyed Peter’s message to Beautyman: that Beautyman was the love of Peter’s life. Beautyman seemed unsurprised by the fact that Silas can speak to ghosts.

On the train, Silas sees many ghosts who died in the Civil War; most are not much older than he is. Many of the ghosts have visible wounds, but not all. The wounds used to scare Silas, but he has gotten used to them. Some of the ghosts just want someone to recognize and remember them, and he is happy to be able to help. Others want him to convey a message to a loved one.

The train stops in Philadelphia, where Silas will transfer to another train. However, he stays in town for a bit to visit his maternal grandmother. Having been estranged from Mama, Silas’s grandmother never realized that Elsa died in childbirth. Silas’s grandmother gives Silas a photograph of his Mama, the first he has ever seen. She reveals that Mama’s violin is a Mittenwald, a fancy type of violin from Bavaria (Germany). Silas concludes that this is where Mittenwool’s name came from. Silas asks if he can roam around the estate and see the pond and gardens where his mother used to play. His grandmother agrees and hugs him before he goes out.

Silas takes Pony around the estate and marvels at how beautiful it is. He opens the violin case and finds a secret compartment that holds a letter from Pa to Mama. The letter states that he had a rough past but is happy to have a fresh start with her. There is also a map of the estate with an “X” in a certain spot. Silas digs at the spot and finds the trunk full of $20,000 worth of gold coins that Mac Boat (Pa) buried. He takes the coins and reburies the trunk. He doesn’t yet know what he’ll do with the money, but he promises Mittenwool to use it for something good. Silas thinks that Pa was a wonderful father even if he was a counterfeiter.

Mittenwool now remembers how he died. He drowned in the pond on Mama’s estate. He had been a friend of Mama’s brother and was visiting their house. He forgot to remove his shoes before swimming and sank. Mama tried to save him but couldn’t, and she was devastated. This moved Mittenwool because she had only met him that day. At his funeral, she played her violin, which he thought was beautiful. The word “Mittenwald” was the first word Mittenwool said to Silas and the only word he remembered for a while. Now, Mittenwool recalls his name in life: John Hills. Mittenwool is finally ready to move on. Before he leaves, he promises to see Silas again one day in death and tells Silas that he loves him.

At age 24, after finishing college with honors in astronomy and physics, Silas inherits the estate from his grandmother, who has passed away. On the land, he plans to open the “John Hills School for Orphaned Children” (273).