Buck's dream-like stream of consciousness is interrupted by the yells of a railroad clerk who ends up offering Buck a laborer's job as soon as he wakes up. Buck declines saying,"Much obliged but I ain't aimin' to dig in no more dirt." Buck bids the clerk goodbye ,hops off the baggage truck and begins his first walk down Aven's single business street. He's hungry and he wants a job "long as it ain't handlin' a tool."

Buck's short journey ends in front of a general store where he encounters a family from the country who have come to town intent on trading a calf for seed and tobacco. As Buck and the family wait for the owner of the store to wait on customers, Buck decides he'll do the owner of the store a favor and see if he can be of service to the waiting family himself. This results in Buck trading a sack of seed, two plugs of tobacco and a stick of licorice candy for the calf. Both Buck and the family are pleased with the trade and the family leaves the store with the goods and with Buck in possession of the calf.

When the store owner finally gets the time to wait on Buck, he is enraged to find out that Buck has taken such liberty with his merchandise but when Buck offers to buy the calf in order to cover the cost of merchandise he traded to the family, the owner declines the offer because he knows the calf is worth twice as much as the goods Buck traded for it. Buck asks for a job and the owner agrees and shakes on the deal before he and Buck ever discuss salary.

Their salary negotiations result in Buck getting the sales job in the store plus the owner agrees to allow Buck to live in the back of the store. Living in proximity to the source of one's cash flow is a theme repeated for the rest of the novel. The new store's business is so hectic that the owner understands he needs an employee like Buck and allowing him to live in the back of the store frees him from having to open up in the morning. During these negotiations, Buck takes the liberty of eating a couple of the store's bananas so in his first hour of being in Aven, Chapter 2 ends with Buck accomplishing everything he set out to do on his first morning in Aven,"Food comes first. Then I got to get me a job-job where a man don't have to use a tool." And he does it without ever breaking his $20 gold piece.