Young Jim Bob is feeling very much out of things now that Jason and Ben are among the older children at school, so he is pleased when he is entrusted to bring the school guinea pig home to look after. Unfortunately it dies during the night and nobody in the family has the time to listen to him and help him with his loneliness and sadness, so he runs away. When it is discovered that he is missing the family starts making enquiries and discovers that he got a lift into a nearby town. John manages to get hold of John Boy, who is at College waiting to attend the lecture of a well known author, and John Boy goes in search of Jim Bob. By the time that he has found him, John Boy has missed the lecture completely, but when Jim Bob tells him the whole story while drinking tea at a cafe, John Boy be