Petticoat Junction

It's the first day of school and Kate is having trouble getting a couple of her daughters motivated to go. Betty Jo has a new friend, a little dog that follows her back from school. Kate refuses to let Betty Jo keep the dog, despite it being cute and well trained. Kate believes that he must belong to someone. Betty Jo brings him back to school, but he stills follows her home. Kate decides to let the dog stay until the owner claims him or until the dog starts to cause problems for the family. The dog does end up causing some problems, but Kate has a change of heart and let's him stay.

Henry Barton is dropping off his pregnant wife Elsie at the Shady Rest. While the baby isn't due for two weeks, Henry still wants someone to watch Elsie as he will be gone for three days. The women aren't at all worried, but Uncle Joe is quite concerned. Joe gets even more panicked when Kate tells him most babies arrive in the middle of the night. He comes up with an elaborate plan involving some of the men of the valley to get Doc Stuart to the Shady Rest if Elsie has the baby in the middle of the night. Without telling anyone, Joe has a trial run of his plan at 3am just to make sure it all goes smoothly. Everyone is quite mad at Uncle Joe. To make matters worse, Joe does it a second time. When Elsie does actually go into labor, it looks as though someone else will have to help with the delivery

Uncle Joe isn't thrilled with the idea of turning the Cannonball's baggage car into a mobile library. He likes even less having to build the library shelves. But after meeting her, Uncle Joe grows extremely fond of pretty librarian Phyllis Marsh. Despite their age difference, among other things, Joe is not shy about romancing Phyllis. Phyllis has to find a way to let him down easy without hurting his feelings, because she is actually engaged. Phyllis introduces her fiance Hal Jackson to Kate. Kate comes up with a plan to show Uncle Joe how inappropriate he and Miss Marsh are as a couple.

Sam, Charley, Floyd and Uncle Joe are rehearsing a reenactment of the signing of the treaty between the Umquaw Indians and the C&FW Railroad. The treaty gave Indian land in the vicinity of Deadman's Curve to the company. Joe thinks the reenactment will bring in tourists to the area and guests to the hotel. Meanwhile, Norman Curtis wants the company's stockholders' meeting to be held at the Shady Rest with Homer Bedloe presiding. Norman tells Bedloe he doesn't want anyone to vote for anything that would harm Kate or the people of the valley. Bedloe finds out about Joe's treaty reenactment plan. He then finds out that the Umquaw never signed the treaty according to C&FW files. Bedloe lets the Umquaw know. Despite not really wanting to do it, Chief Fleeteagle and Black Salmon make what will be a profitable deal for them and the end of the Cannonball. Kate may come up with the best deal of them all.

Hooterville has a long standing record of being the first community to have their political votes submitted to the state. Pip Winslow from Crabwell Corners is taking bets that they will beat Hooterville this year, because they have a new automatic voting machine. Hooterville may lose regardless because of a disagreement between Kate and Selma Plout. Selma threatens to cast her ballot late in the day just to spite Kate. A letter from the Governor comes addressed to the Hooterville Chamber of Commerce, which doesn't exist. So they can open the letter, Joe, Charley and Floyd create the Chamber. The Governor hopes they can extend their 20 year record. Kate believes she has a way for Selma to change her mind. Despite a couple of set-backs, Hooterville gets their votes in first.

Betty Jo wants to enter Dog in a contest to make a commercial for Tailwagger Dog Food. The winner also receives a $500 cash award. Kate tries to discourage Betty Jo because Dog doesn't have a chance against purebreds. The girls are thrilled when they receive a letter telling them that Dog is one of the five finalists. The letter also says that Mr. Talbot with the dog food company will be coming by to see Dog. What they don't know is that Henry Brewster, the local photo-finisher, who sent in both his and the Bradleys' entries, got the pictures interchanged. This means that Mr. Talbot was really naming Henry's collie one of the five finalists. But after meeting Dog, Mr. Talbot has an idea for a whole series of other commercials. He would like to use Dog and the entire family. Uncle Joe's meddling may ruin everything and Dog may have a say in how things go.

Uncle Joe shocks Kate by bringing home a buffalo! Kate tells him to take it back, but all sales were final. It's part of his scheme to dupe wealthy British sportsman Lord Harold Faversham into coming to "Shady Rest Hunting Lodge" to hunt wild buffalo. But, the buffalo is far from wild and the girls want to keep him as a pet. Another problem arises when Joe spooks the buffalo, who runs off, leaving Lord Faversham nothing to hunt for. Joe stalls Faversham for three days. The Lord is growing tired of Joe and threatens to sue, while the girl try to protect their new pet. Kate comes up with a way for Faversham to have all the hunting he wants.

The girls are trying to learn some Japanese to make Betty Jo's Japanese pen pal, Nobuko Takamura, feel at home for her visit. Nobuko has come to the US to attend college to improve her English so that she can teach it back in Japan. She would also like to learn American customs. Nobuko tells Joe that in Japan, the women do the yard work. Joe gets Nobuko to do his chores until Kate puts a stop to it. On a picnic, Nobuko can't help but serve Billie Jo and Bobbie Jo's boyfriends. Kate tells Nobuko that the men should be the ones helping the women. Nobuko catches on to that custom quite quickly.

Billie Jo is upset that the Cannonball is late and she believes it has outlived its usefulness. Meanwhile, Homer Bedloe, the Hooterville Cannonball's arch-enemy, has been having terrible nightmares about the train. To get rid of them, his psychiatrist Dr. Leonard suggests that he "learn to love" the Cannonball. The Cannonball has been encountering some broken tracks. Kate decides to let the C&FW Railroad know. Bedloe writes back that he will fix the tracks. When Bedloe visits the Shadyrest Hotel, he is surprised how friendly everyone is being to him. Everyone except Uncle Joe. But Kate was just gas-lighting Bedloe and didn't really believe the change in him when he said he loved the train. She finds out Bedloe is planning to remove the old damaged tracks instead of replacing them to shut down the Cannonball. Kate comes up with a plan to stop him.

Jack Crandall, who is with H-D-L Food Products, is a passenger on the Cannonball. He is stunned when the train stops just so Charley and Floyd can pick apples for Kate's special recipe: Bachelor Butter. She gives it to the bachelors of the valley as a thank you for all they do for her over the course of the year. Jack Crandall tastes the butter and really likes it. He brings a couple jars back to his company to see if he can produce it for sale. Jack sends Kate a letter stating he wants to buy the recipe for H-D-L and will pay her $250. He will pay her another $250 after she shows him how to make it in their laboratory kitchen. At the test kitchen, Mr. Stevens and Mr. Kimberly are having a hard time translating Kate's measuring process into a precise recipe. When the apple butter doesn't turn out right, Kate has all her equipment from home brought to the test kitchen, including her oven. Jack understands when the next batch doesn't turn out either.

Kate doesn't have anything against Dan, Billie Jo's boyfriend, that is except his mother is Selma Plout, her arch-enemy. Kate and Selma are once again arguing at the Every Other Wednesday Afternoon Discussion Club. Kate doesn't even mind talk of Billie Jo and Dan perhaps getting married. Uncle Joe tells Kate there's a real possibility that the two are going to get married and she might want to think about becoming friends with Selma. Kate makes an attempt to be nice to Selma, but that doesn't work out too well. Rumors are flying and it's starting to look as though Billie Jo and Dan are going to elope. Sam makes a call to Pixley and finds out that Dan got married. Kate and Selma start crying in each others arms. Turns out Dan married Emily Lawrence and Billie Jo was just helping