A handsome forestry student name Chad Marshall arrives on Walton's Mountain. Both Erin and Mary Ellen are smitten and a competition delelops between them. Each is sure that she is the chosen one. Mary Ellen realizes that it is Erin thats truly in love.

Erin's 1st love, Chad Marshall, comes back and asks Erin to be his wife. She agrees but John emphatically says no so Erin and Chad run off to elope.