- A very tall man takes a picture of Peekay sitting on the rock, and tells him that his name is Professor von Vollensteen. He is carrying a cactus in a bag on his back, and he invites Peekay to guess how it is that the thorns aren't sticking him.
- It turns on that the bag is made of thick leather, and the Professor finds a rare succulent underneath the rock where Peekay is sitting. He takes a picture of it, then collects it, and tells Peekay that he can call him "Doc." There's got to be something symbolic about this all.
- Doc teaches Peekay the Latin names for the cactus and succulent he collected in the hills, and walks him home. Peekay is feeling a lot better after having the fight with his mother.
- When he gets home, though, he is sent to bed with no supper. Dee and Dum have put some food in his chamber pot, though, so he doesn't starve.
- An army camp is set up a few miles out of town, and this comforts Peekay, who is still confused about Hitler's whereabouts and the possibilities of his marching on South Africa. Maybe he should pick up a newspaper.
- Peekay sends the ten shillings he won from Hoppie's fight to Nanny so that she will know he loves her.
- Doc shows up at the house and mentions that he is German. He asks to meet Peekay's mother, and she receives him in the front living room, even though she says they can't afford music lessons.
- Doc says that he would like Peekay to stay for the meeting, and his mother is surprised at his new nickname, which is news to her. Doc gives her the photograph he took of Peekay, which is a beautiful picture of him sitting on the rock with the sun shining down on him. So angelic.
- Doc offers to teach Peekay to play the piano in return for having him go on his cactus-collecting trips, since his eyes aren't as good as a young boy's. The mother, seduced by the social status she would get by having a musician in the family, agrees.
- Peekay spends the summer with Doc, learning about nature and music. He also takes him to the public library regularly, where Mrs. Boxall, the librarian, would tease them for making notes in the margins of the books.
- Peekay becomes a regular at the town concerts, which is hard on his mother. On the one hand, she is very proud, but on the other, her new religion teaches that concerts are the devil's work, so she compromises by telling herself that most classical music was written for the church. Whatever floats your boat, lady.
- During the concerts, the town is divided between English and Afrikaner South Africans. The English stay the whole time to sing "White Cliffs of Dover," while the Afrikaners, many of whom are Nazi sympathizers (because the Germans were fighting against the English, their recent oppressors) walk out in protest of the English song.
- The town newspaper, The Goldfield News, always condemned the Afrikaners the next day for their unpatriotic behavior, but Mrs. Boxall always wrote lovely reviews of Peekay performances in her column, "Clippings from a Cultured Garden by Fiona Boxall."