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John stops by the store for some tape and finds Ike inside on the phone arguing with the Office of Price Administration who are missing a form he filled out. Maude Gormley waits impatiently to by some sugar but when Ike gets of the phone he informs her that there is no sugar for anyone. She threatens to take her shopping to Rockfish. Ike complains to John how tough it has been to run the store with the war shortages and everyone taking their business elsewhere.
John arrives home to see Blue the mule eating the flowers in front of the house. He asks the children inside who is responsible for Blue now that John-Boy has moved away. Since Blue hasn’t done any work lately John feels it is time to sell him. He tells Jim-Bob and Elizabeth that they can split the money if they sell Blue. They post a sign in the window at Ike’s for $15. Clarence stops by the farm and tries to bargain a cheaper price but Jim-Bob sticks to his guns and gets the $15. Elizabeth is heartbroken she had no desire to sell the mule.
At the store Ike is stressed and overworked. He gets flustered when Corabeth asks him to organize the shelves of canned goods. He gets so worked up that he triggers a heart attack.
John, Corabeth, Mary Ellen and Dr. David Spencer stand beside Ike who is unconscious in his hospital bed. There has been no change in his progress. Corabeth blames herself for pushing him to hard. John tries to console her. He says without her he might have had the heart attack long ago.
Maude Gormley comes back into the store again looking for sugar. Ben wonders how else they can get there hands on some sugar and his Daddy says there is plenty on the mountain. Grandpa had planted sorghum with the intention of making molasses but never got around to it and there is plenty growing all over the mountain now. They figure it will take 2 weeks to turn the sorghum into molasses. Maude can’t wait that long and heads off to Rockfish.
Corabeth reads to Ike. She then speaks he feelings to him. Mary Ellen quietly enters and overhears Corabeth’s tender words to her husband. Mary Ellen suggest that Corabeth needs some rest but she is afraid to leave Ike’s side. Her Daddy died from a heart attack when she was a little girl and doesn’t want the same to happen to Ike.
At the store Jim-Bob has mistakenly ordered 12 dozen orders of bread instead of 12 loaves of bread. Erin says that the order book is a mess and decides to organize it a bit better.
Ike has woken up at the hospital. Dr. Spencer says he needs as much rest as possible. He asks how much longer he needs to stay in the hospital and if he can return to work. The Doctor says that he needs to reduce the pressure as possible.
John stops by to visit Ike at the hospital. He brings a present from the Baldwins ladies to brighten his stay. Expecting it to be “recipe” he is surprised to discover that they gave him a pair of binoculars to watch birds outside the hospital window. Ike is tired of looking at the ceiling and knows exactly how many holes are in each ceiling tile. Ike names John the executor of his will and gives him a copy. He says that next to Corabeth he considers John his best friend and says he loves him.
Ben and Jim-Bob try to convince Chance to turn the mill to grind the sorghum but the cow wants nothing to do with it. Their Daddy starts loading some lumber for an order for Pickett’s Defense Plant and Ben tries to take over to prevent his father from being overworked. Ben is afraid of his father having a heart attack too.
Corabeth takes Ike outside for a stroll around the hospital in his wheelchair. She begs him to not go back to work. She wants to sell the store and to move to Virginia Beach. She doesn’t want him to die like her Papa did.
Ben, Jim-Bob and Elizabeth work on trying to grind sorghum into molasses but it is not working. Clarence shows up riding Blue the mule and Ben negotiates to by Blue back but Clarence holds hard and agrees to $18 instead of the $15 he paid for Blue.
Dr. David Spencer and Mary Ellen check on Ike at the hospital. The doctor says the he needs plenty of rest and then they continue on their rounds. Corabeth and Ike talk about the need to sell the store so that he can get the rest he needs.
At the store 2 men inspect the place while Elizabeth keeps watch. They are interested in buying the place as they expect there to be growth in the area thinking it could become another Charlottesville.
Although Ben retrieved 80 gallons of sap it resulted in only 8 gallons of molasses after it was boiled down. Ben is upset that he will only make $0.30 per gallon for all his work.
Mary Ellen brings Ike back home He sees how the Walton kids have made improvements around the store like organizing the shelves and improving the store records. Ben says that he made Molasses to make up for the sugar shortage. Ike and Corabeth tell the kids that they plan to sell the store and retire to Virginia Beach. The prospective buyer arrives to make his offer. He announces the changes and improvements he plans to make to modernize the dated “Mom and Pop” establishment. Ike takes offense to the plans. He says he is a storekeeper and he would rather lose his life at the cash register than in a rocking chair. Over the past 30 years of his life that he has given to the store he has become friends to most of the people in the community and has watched the Walton children grow up and thinks of them being almost like his own. He knows that his time will come someday but until then he wants to stay where he belongs, working at the store. He asks Corabeth to agree and she does so by placing his store apron back over his head.
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