It's 1944 and Jim Bob is graduating. Corabeth has been appointed substitute teacher for the term. John-Boy is home for a short leave, before going on active duty again. Ben arrives to reveal he's being posted to the South Pacific, and Jason says he's applied for overseas duty. Jim Bob, almost certain to get the highest marks in school, is due to give the speech at the Graduation, but doesn't want to, so thinks seriously of deliberately failing a science exam. But after Elizabeth tells him she's ashamed of him, he changes his mind. Erin receives a letter at long last from her boy-friend Ashley Longworth, but the news it brings that he's married to an English girl fills her with grief. John Walton brings Grandma to the Graduation just as Jim Bob announces that all four of the boys graduating