Tuck Everlasting: Chapter Seventeen Summary & Analysis

Winnie wakes up very early and looks out the window. She admires the mist sitting on the water and watches a toad hopping by. She remembers her toad at home and feels as though she's been away for weeks. Winnie starts to blush when she hears steps on the stairs and thinks that Jesse is coming, but it's Miles. He smiles and invites her to help him catch fish for breakfast. Winnie steps carefully into the boat, accepts the fishing poles and bait, and notices frogs and fish in the water. She thinks that she gets to go home today and thinks fondly of the Tucks' visits to her the night before. Winnie decides that they're friends and she loves them.

Miles steers the boat to some lily pads and baits the hooks. Winnie studies Miles, whose face is thinner than Jesse's but whose body is more solid. Softly, Miles looks up and says that one of his children was a girl named Anna. He took her fishing too, and she's almost 80 now if she's still alive. Winnie asks why Miles didn't take his family to the spring to drink. Miles explains that he didn't figure out that the spring was to blame until after his wife left, but by that time, his wife was almost 40 and his children were close to his age. He says it would've been too strange, and besides, Angus thinks that the fewer people know about it, the better.

Miles hands Winnie her pole and she lets the hook down into the water. She remarks that there are a lot of frogs in the pond, and Miles says they'll stay unless the turtles move in. Winnie sighs that it'd be nice if nothing had to die, but Miles says that if nothing died, pretty soon there'd be no room for any new life. Winnie admits that Miles is right as a fish nearly jerks the pole out of her hands. The fish gets away and Winnie hands Miles the pole.

Winnie slaps at a mosquito that lands on her knee and thinks that Miles is right; it'd be awful if mosquitos lived forever. She decides she's going to keep the Tucks' secret and asks Miles what he's going to do with so much time. Miles says he wants to do something important. He doesn't think that Angus's habit of hiding is useful, and he also doesn't believe that he should think only of his own pleasure. He believes that in order to take up space, he has to do something useful, though he's not sure what that is.

Winnie reaches out and touches a lily pad. Then, Miles catches a trout and pulls it up into the boat. It's simultaneously beautiful and horrifying, and the sight of it makes Winnie want to cry. She tells Miles to put it back and he does. Winnie feels silly as she asks if the trout will be okay. Miles says it'll be fine, but people have to eat meat sometimes--and that means killing things.