Chapters 8–9 (The Happiness Machine–beginning) — Leo Auffmann, listening to elderly people's gloomy and fatalistic conversations, insists that they should not dwell on such miserable topics. Douglas and his grandfather, passing by, suggest to Leo that he should make a Happiness Machine. After the conversing people laugh at this apparently absurd idea, Leo becomes determined to do just that. A brief scene of him returning to his family of six children indicates his happiness at home, exemplified when his wife Lena asks, "Something's wrong?" after Leo expresses his desire to build a Happiness Machine.