Ruth loves her new refrigerator, but Lassie prefers meals from the old icebox instead--precipitating a battle of wills.

Timmy buys an old plowhorse for a dollar, but Paul says they cannot keep the animal since he can't do any work. In trying earn money to keep the horse, Timmy becomes trapped in a mine.

Timmy enters a ""why I love my pet"" contest and entrusts Lassie to get the entry to the mailman on time, but she spends so much time aiding neighbors in trouble that the letter is not delivered.

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.

Paul needs a new well, and Cully Wilson swears he can find water with a divining rod rather than Paul hiring an expensive geologist.

Timmy persuades editor Ira Caldwell to let him try and earn money by selling newspaper subscriptions to the Calverton Sentinel,and then accidently overhears a plan to rob the local dairy's co-op while at the Vance farm.