Charlotte works through the night, spinning the new word in her web, keeping herself amused by giving herself encouragement. In the morning, Lurvy finds Wilbur standing under the "Terrific" web, and again fetches Mr. Zuckerman. They alert the papers to another "miracle," and soon admirers again surround Wilbur’s pen. Zuckerman tells Lurvy to fill Wilbur’s pen with clean, bright straw instead of cow manure; he also says to prepare a crate in which to carry Wilbur to the Fair.
Meanwhile, Templeton is searching around the dump for new words for Charlotte’s web. He brings back "crunchy" and "pre−shrunk," both of which she dismisses − but "radiant," his third word, is a winner. She asks Wilbur to dance and jump around, to see if he really is "radiant" in action. Charlotte says she’s not sure it’s exactly radiant, but it is interesting; Wilbur, however, feels radiant.
Wilbur, tired from all the activity, asks Charlotte to tell him a story. She tells him a tale about a cousin that had built a web over a stream. To her surprise, she caught a fish. After another story about a cousin who was a balloonist, Wilbur requests a song, and Charlotte sings him to sleep.