Leaving the Lighthouse

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Leaving the Lighthouse

By Terry Webb Louie Lighthouse Book Series # 4.

Illustrations by Karla Cochran No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording

or

otherwise—without

the

prior

permission of the copyright holder, except as provided by USA copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scriptures are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

ISBN 978-0-9859109-1-4 © 2003 by Terry Webb. All rights reserved.

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Dedication To my sons-in-law, Brian, Chris, and Michael, and their sons

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Table of Contents Dedication Table of Contents Preface Introduction Acknowledgment Chapter 1 From Island to Mainland Chapter 2 Beginning Shore Leave Chapter 3 Arrival Chapter 4 Sledding Chapter 5 Abraham and Isaac Chapter 6 At the Missens Chapter 7 Burying the Body Chapter 8 The Play Chapter 9 The Cast Party 5

Chapter 10 Finding Out Chapter 11 The Trial Chapter 12 Captain Spade’s Fate Chapter 13 A Moving Picture Show Chapter 14 Bad Fathers and Good Fathers Chapter 15 Time to Work and Time to Play Chapter 16 Father and Son Chapter 17 Surprises Chapter 18 Special Surprise Chapter 19 Visiting Tidewater School Chapter 20 Suspecting Trouble Chapter 21 Easter Sunday Chapter 22 The Peabody Party Chapter 23 Home Chapter 24 The Wedding 6

Terry Webb Books

Preface The Louie Lighthouse Book Series was first published in the early 2000’s and was well received by educators and home schoolers. It is being republished now in 2022 because, post Covid 19, the need for encouragement and support for young boys is greater than ever.

Following are reviews and comments demonstrating the great value of this series “Readers will be encouraged by the positive male role models that assist this single parent family in the early 1900s. I recommend this book as part of a literature based American history curriculum.”

-Elizabeth Giles Griner, homeschooling mother “This short, easy to read story is full of things young boys love about books. Terry Webb has effectively incorporated adventures and life lessons that children today can easily relate.”

-Peter Hawley, St. Paul’s Middle School, Brooklandville, Maryland.

“For social studies teachers this could be a resource for the specific strands Time, Continuity and Change, and Science and Technology as defined by the National Council of Social Studies.”

-Jill Hunter “Painful loss, forgiveness and joy abound in the final book of the Louie Lighthouse series. Leaving the Lighthouse brings closure to the 7

turbulent years following the earlier three volumes. Terry Webb’s satisfying conclusion ties up all the loose ends of Louie’s story. Its strong moral lessons lay a foundation in which we must learn to let go of the past and place trust that God will provide in the future.”

-The Gainer Family, Rocky Hill, NJ Leaving the Lighthouse is definitely the best book yet (in the Louie Lighthouse Book Series) ... is has everything a book should have.

Excellent ending!

-William Allen, 14 years-old

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Introduction Louie Lighthouse Book Series Terry Webb makes American history come alive for preteens through historical fiction, with the purpose of fostering in 9-13year-old boys a passion for reading. This series of four books is exciting reading for all, but is designed to provide an ideal way for boys to learn about lighthouses as an important part of our nation's maritime history. Her writing provides hope for boys and girls in every generation and in many countries as they face their own challenges of growing up. One reviewer said, "Terry Webb's style is always enjoyable and never preachy. She presents a realistic picture of life at an island lighthouse more than a century ago with all its harshness, dangers and beauty.”

Series Study Guide This study guide for the four-book series of Louie Lighthouse books is published as an e-book on Amazon's Kindle. The guide was designed purposively for teachers and homeschool parents to teach maritime history, inventions, and history during the early 20th century in selective interdisciplinary modules.

On December 1, 2006, the author gave copies of books in this series to First Lady Laura Bush, whose own love for reading inspired her to become a national advocate for encouraging young boys to read.

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Manning the Light Book 1 After his father dies, 13-year-old Louie Hollander and his mother must move away from their old home and find a way to make a living in the summer of 1903. They are hired as keepers of Two Tree Island Lighthouse on Windlass Bay - temporarily. In order to keep the job, Louie and his ma must prove that they can handle the hard work.

Tending to the urgent task of protecting sea-going vessels from storm and fog keeps Louie scrambling, especially when equipment breaks down. And even with visits from mainland friends, island living is lonely. An injured sea gull becomes an unexpected pet and a visiting preacher becomes a new fishing buddy. But Louie grieves for his father and misses his best friend, Charlie. Then Louie receives wonderful news. Charlie plans to spend the month of August on Two Tree Island. August can't come quickly enough. But Louie finds that Charlie has changed a lot. Suddenly Louie must face difficult choices, especially when Charlie's behavior endangers the operation of the lighthouse.

Weathering the Storms Book 2 Louie’s story continues in the fall of 1903 with Louie and his friend, Charlie as they face their fears and find that faith helps them deal with the stormy challenges of nature, sports, abuses, accidents, and relationships. You will meet Louie's new pet, a Newfoundland puppy, and go with Louie and Charlie to the First World Series' games at Boston's Huntington Park Fairgrounds. Read when a hurricane hits Two Tree Island and a fishing fleet.

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Mystery and Mishap Book 3 Louie, the junior lighthouse keeper at Two Tree Island, comes across a body washed up on the shore one cold winter morning, it sets off a tantalizing mystery. Who is this mysterious person? How did he-or she-die? And how did the body wind up on his island? As Louie begins the search for clues, he has no idea where this mystery will lead him or the incredible events that will transpire over the next few months. A whiteout Christmas, a strange illness, a shipwrecked crew, a time of testing— it's all here in Mystery and Mishap— the third installment in the adventures of Louie Hollander and his friends.

Leaving the Lighthouse Book 4 Louie, the thirteen-year-old hero of Manning the Light, Weathering the Storms, and Mystery and Mishap, returns in Leaving the Lighthouse. In this fourth and final book in The Louie Lighthouse Book Series, change is afoot for Louie and his family and friends, and for the nation: Louie leaves his beloved island lighthouse home to stay with Uncle Sam while his mother recuperates from a near fatal illness.

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When will they return to Two Tree Island?

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Will they?

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Louie's friend Abram loses his mother.

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Was it an accident or something more sinister?

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And did Abram's father have anything to do with that awful

day?

Join Louie and his friends, old and new, as they are challenged and thrilled by the dramatic changes taking place in transportation, communication, entertainment and in their individual lives.

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Discover how relationships of sons and fathers are built, destroyed, or mended. And throughout it all, learn how God can be trusted in the good times and the difficult ones as well.

Fictional People and Places Abram Spade – 13-year-old boy; Captain Spade’s son Captain Bowline – mission ship captain Captain Spade – fishing ship captain Charlie Missen – 14-year-old boy; fisherman’s son Louie Hollander – 13-year-old boy; son of Molly Hollander Louisa Peabody – 14-year-old girl with the same name as a famous Massachusetts governor Molly Hollander – a lady lighthouse keeper Mr. McAllister – Lighthouse Service Board superintendent; a political appointment Rainbow – a mission ship serving island dwellers Sam Hornblower – a pastor Scout – a Newfoundland puppy Two Tree Island – a fictional island off the New England coast Windlass Bay – any bay anywhere

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Acknowledgments I wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of the Maine Maritime Museum, in Bath, Maine, especially Susan Russell and Nathan R. Lipfert, who researched boats commonly used by lighthouse keepers in 1903 and the 1903 Lighthouse Service Board.

Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, Maine Elaine Jones, the educational specialist for the State of Maine and curator for the Burnt Island lighthouse in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, provided expert advice on the life of lighthouse families who lived on islands.

Thanks to Charlie Liebert who implemented, on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) four of the five eBooks and all four

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paperbacks. His website is at http://www.sixdaycreation.com Email charie@sixdaycreation.com.

Similar to the lighthouse in our story on Two Tree Island the Burnt Island Lighthouse had keepers living on the island. It began its rich history in 1821 when Keeper Joshua B. Cushing lit the lighthouses’ lamps for the very first time.

Burnt Island lighthouse, Boothbay Harbor, Maine Barbara Skinner Rumsey, librarian at the Boothbay Harbor Historical Society, helped with dialect expressions of Maine seamen and sailors.

I also wish to thank Beth Griner and my grandchildren who read and critiqued the story.

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CHAPTER 1

From Island to Mainland Dense fog enveloped Rainbow.

Louie faced forward toward Two Tree Island after watching the shoreline disappear. Ahead on his island home he and Ma faced lighthouse tending chores and seeing Scout, his puppy. Behind was the Lighthouse Service Board hearing that freed them both of responsibility for the shipwreck of the Carlton Company’s ship, Sea Mist. His new friend Abram Spade was back in town. The question of Abram’s pa’s role in the death of his mother remained unresolved.

“What will happen to Captain Spade now?” Louie asked of no one in particular.

Harry said, “Police will come and arrest him, I reckon.”

“Unless the Carlton Company posts bail,” Ma offered.

“Or unless he still needs more time in the hospital recuperating from his amputations,” Uncle Sam added. “Then the police will post a guard outside his hospital room until he’s well enough to stand trial.”

Louie waited for Captain Bowline to add his response. He usually spoke only to add something important or to polish off the conversation. The fog was so thick that no one could see Two Tree Island, and Louie knew that for the safety of everyone on board the captain needed to keep his eye on the compass and his ears listening to the fog siren from the island. In fact, the only time Captain Bowline spoke on the whole trip to the island was as the island wharf appeared out of the fog.

“Prepare the lines!” he barked.

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Harry grabbed the bow rope and Louie, the stern. Louie heard a familiar “woof.” Scout appeared, her tail wagging. Before she tried to jump on board Rainbow, Louie put out his hand and commanded, “Stay, girl. Sit.” Scout sat, her tail thumping the boards on the wharf.

“Good girl.” Louie patted her head as soon as he made the stern rope fast. Captain Bowline tossed up their duffels. Harry handed up boxes of provisions they’d purchased at Jake’s store. Uncle Sam gave Ma a hand to help her up.

Ma needed his help. She was still recovering from pneumonia.

Uncle Sam had persuaded Mr. McAllister, who had reluctantly agreed, that she needed time to regain her health. He suggested Harry stay on the island and assist Aussie in manning the lighthouse.

“Probably need two of them with the weather still unpredictable.

Soon’s it clears, they could take turns tending the lamp,” Mr. McAllister told them.

“I’ll come fer ye tomorrow, weather permittin’,” Captain Bowline called after the four of them were safely on the wharf. Then he reversed Rainbow’s engine and headed back to the mainland.

“Well, laddies and lass, ye look mighty happy,” Aussie said after they had deposited their luggage and put their provisions away.

“No sentence, no fines …” Ma started but Louie finished: “…

Captain Spade then became a suspect in his wife’s death.”

“Scoundrels got it comin’ to him,” Harry added.

Uncle Sam held up his hand. “Whoa, you three, the man’s got a right to a fair trial before sentencing. He’s innocent until proven guilty.”

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“Aussie, you think you could manage here with Harry’s help while I take Mrs. Hollander to the mainland with me for an extended sick leave?” Uncle Sam asked.

“I’ll stay till fishing season starts. Soon’s fish start bitin’ I need to find me a new crew position on a trawler,” Harry said.

“We could leave Louie here with you …,” Uncle Sam added.

“No way!” Louie interrupted. “You promised you’d take me to see Abram in Huck Finn, remember? Besides, I’ve taken all my exams.”

“Speaking of taking exams,” Aussie said, “Gus brought a thick packet for you—looks like Miss Gilbert’s handwritin’. Maybe it’s more schoolwork.”

Louie’s face fell. He took the packet Aussie held in his hands and carried it up to his loft room to open it. He read: Dear Louie, You’ve done some fine work here on these exams that I’m returning to you—all As and a few Bs. I heard about the results of the hearing and your mother’s illness. I think you deserve a little break from schoolwork. I’ll be back for a visit this spring.

—Miss Gilbert “Yippee!” Louie tossed his exam papers into the air and then retrieved them and put them back into their packet before starting down the loft steps.

“See,” he called, as he descended, “even Miss Gilbert thinks I need to come with you to the mainland.”

He tossed the packet onto Ma’s lap. She opened it and read Miss Gilbert’s note, then looked over the marked exam papers. “Well done, son.” She beamed up at him from her chair. Uncle Sam gave him a man-sized handshake.

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“I couldn’t have done it without you two prodding and quizzing me,” Louie said, nodding to Harry and then Aussie.

“Ye’r a right smart lad,” Aussie said.

“Think we could do without him for a spell?” Aussie asked Harry.

“Course he’d have to leave Scout here with us …”

Louie grabbed Scout’s collar and looked fiercely at Aussie. He took a deep breath and said, “She wants to come with me, don’t you, Scout.” He patted her head and she wagged her tail while looking at Aussie. “Woof.”

“Besides, she’s getting so big she needs a place where she can run. She can’t do that cooped up on this island,” Louie said.

“But she’s a lighthouse dog,” Aussie argued.

“Why can’t she have a break with me?” Louie pleaded.

“Don’t you think you better ask Uncle Sam? We’re visiting him at his house,” Ma said.

“Can he? I mean can she come, too?” Louie turned to Uncle Sam. “What’s a boy without his dog?” Uncle Sam’s response was more of a statement than a question.

“Time to pack up what we need for the mainland,” Ma said.

“Come on, Louie, we best get ready. Captain Bowline will be back to fetch us to go to shore. Hope the fog lifts soon.” She shivered. “I’d forgotten how the sound of that fog siren could jar my nerves.”

“How long will we be staying, Ma?” Louie asked, sitting down next to her. “Should I bring along books and games and wood carving stuff?”

“Best bring what you think you’ll need for a month or so,” Uncle Sam responded.

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“And I can take my good dress and hat …”

“Not that peacock hat, Ma!” Louie exclaimed.

“Why not?” Ma said. “I’ll have more occasions to wear it and my red cape on the mainland than here.”

“While you pack, I’ll tend the lamp and the fog siren,” Harry said.

“Give Aussie here and the rest of you some rest.”

“I’ll spell you during the night,” Louie said, getting out of his chair and moving over to stand next to Aussie and Harry. “It won’t take me long to pack my stuff. Look! I’m still on our lighthouse keeper team assigned to man this lighthouse.”

During that night, after Louie had cranked the fog siren machine, trimmed the lamp wick, and filled the reservoir, he sat down at the log desk to look over Aussie’s log entries and to add his own.

February 25, 1904: Kept light and siren going during foggy night. Will be going to mainland for shore leave.

—Louie Hollander

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CHAPTER 2

Beginning Shore Leave Fog’s lifting!” Louie exclaimed.

About midmorning, the sun had begun to burn back the hovering fog bank.

“Better get ready,” he reminded Ma, who was just closing her trunk. “Rainbow should be along soon.”

“I’m glad,” Uncle Sam added. “Gives us just enough time to make the late afternoon train. If I can’t get back tomorrow, I don’t know who will open the church doors on Sunday.”

“Come on, Scout. Let’s see if we can spot Rainbow through the spyglass.”

Scout bounded up the lighthouse tower steps in front of Louie.

She placed her front paws on the window ledge and wagged her tail when Louie raised the spyglass. Louie scanned Windlass Bay for any sign of a boat looking like Rainbow. He didn’t have to look long before he spotted what looked like Rainbow headed toward Two Tree Island.

“Let’s go fetch Ma and Uncle Sam,” he said to Scout, who walked behind Louie down the winding tower steps while Louie held on to her collar. “Easy, girl—don’t want you falling through the cracks.”

Louie knew that a dog going down stairs too fast could fall through cracks.

Very little time elapsed after Rainbow pulled up to the wharf before all their luggage had been transferred onto the boat.

“Bye, Aussie. Bye, Harry.” Louie waved to the two keepers left to man the lighthouse as Captain Bowline backed out, turned, and 21

headed back to the town wharf where a wagon was ready and waiting to take the three of them to the train station.

He heard a train whistle just as the wagon rounded a bend in the road. Louie wasn’t sure they’d make it on time. He leaned over to ask the driver. “Will we make it?” The driver cracked his whip and the horses trotted faster.

Just as the driver was hitching his horses to the post, Louie heard a conductor call, “All aboard!” Uncle Sam ran to get a porter to unload their duffels and trunk from the wagon and load them into the baggage car.

“The dog will have to travel in here too,” the conductor said pointing to Scout.

“Why can’t she stay with us?” Louie asked. “She might get scared by train noises.”

“Sorry—train policy. No pets allowed in passenger cars. We have a nice cage for her in here.”

Louie climbed aboard the baggage car and called Scout to follow.

Scout balked, but with some coaxing from Ma and Uncle Sam and with Louie’s promise of a treat, she finally jumped up into the baggage car. Louie put her in the cage.

“I’ll come see you as soon as we find our seats,” Louie reassured her.

Scout whined, whimpered, then paced around her confined space.

“All passengers aboard!” a conductor called again, waving to the engineer.

Louie left Scout and jumped down just as a porter slid the baggage doors closed. He ran to catch up with Uncle Sam and Ma, 22

who were waving to him from the door of their passenger car. As soon as a conductor came through their car collecting tickets, Louie asked him if he could go back to the baggage car to be with his dog.

The conductor agreed. Louie left Ma snoring in her seat beside Uncle Sam, who was absorbed in his reading. He pushed open doors into other train cars and walked by rows of seats, sometimes jostling passengers. When he opened the door of the car next to the caboose, Scout’s howling rose above the rattle of the train wheels, so he had no trouble finding her cage in the dark. He sat down beside it, reached through the bars to calm her down, and said in a soothing voice, “It’s okay, girl.” Her howling turned to a whimper, and then stopped.

With the rocking motion of the train, both he and Scout slept until Louie felt a hand shaking his shoulder.

“Wake up, boy,” said a conductor. “The next stop is yours.”

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CHAPTER 3

Arrival Rockkkk-valle!” The conductor called.

Louie heard the hiss of steam and felt the train shudder as the engineer put on the brakes. The train stopped. The door to the baggage car slid open and a porter started lifting and then handing over the valises, trunks, and duffels to another porter who piled them on the dimly lit platform.

Louie opened Scout’s cage and jumped down, calling, “Jump, Scout. You can do it, girl!”

Scout leapt onto Louie, who fell backward onto a pile of duffels.

He could hear laughter from Uncle Sam and Ma as they drew near.

Uncle Sam said, “Here are two pieces of baggage that I think belong to us.”

Ma searched until she found her trunk, and Louie pulled his own duffel out from under the pile where he had fallen. Soon they had everything loaded onto a waiting wagon.

It was after midnight when they arrived at the two-story, whiteshingled house next to the church. Louie could just make out the outline of the steeple in the moonlight. He thought about the Sunday morning after the second World Series game when he had woken up so late he’d almost missed the service. Remembering those exciting games he thought, Wonder when baseball season starts? He stifled a yawn as he climbed down to help Uncle Sam unload their baggage. Scout sniffed her new surroundings and followed Louie up the steps into the house.

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“We’ll get settled in tomorrow,” Uncle Sam said. He showed Louie and his mother to their rooms and said good night. Scout curled up at the foot of Louie’s bed, and soon they were both fast asleep. Before he fell asleep, Louie listened for the familiar fog siren, but the only sounds he heard were the tick-tocks coming from a clock somewhere in the house. He dreamed he was back on the train with Scout, and the rumble of the train wheels on the railroad tracks lulled him to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, he found Ma and Uncle Sam sitting, talking, and drinking coffee downstairs in the kitchen.

“How about some scrambled eggs?” Uncle Sam asked. “I just happen to have some eggs handy, so you don’t have to gather them from under the hens.”

Louie heard his stomach growl in response. “Sounds great. I’m starving.”

“After breakfast, I’ll leave you two to unpack and get settled while I prepare for the church service tomorrow. Later you can tell me what you like to eat so we can buy our supplies.”

“Can Scout come, too?” Louie asked. Hope there are not too many rocks to climb or jump over, he thought as he remembered the name of the town, Rockvalle, and how they had to climb up and over rocks on Two Tree Island.

“Of course, Scout can come—and afterward, how does a run in the park sound?”

But when Louie looked out the window, he saw a sprinkling of white landing on the lawn in the middle of the town square and on the roofs of the houses.

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CHAPTER 4

Sledding It’s snowing!” Louie exclaimed.

“Guess it may be sledding instead of running,” Uncle Sam said from the doorway as he disappeared into the whiteness.

Louie unpacked his duffel, putting aside his boots. He would need to take Scout to the park. He hadn’t been sledding since they lived at Swanton Point. That winter—the same winter Pa had his accident—the snow was so deep they’d had to use snowshoes to get around. Then, on Two Tree Island during their last big snow, it had rained and turned the surface of the snow into a slippery slide. Louie hoped that the snow wouldn’t turn to rain today. He wondered if Uncle Sam had a sled around.

“Ready?” Uncle Sam asked after they returned from shopping and had eaten their lunch. “There’s a great hill in the park behind that new Carnegie Library. Should be some good sledding down that hill.”

He excused himself and went down into the basement.

“Look what I found.” He came back upstairs with a sled.

Louie couldn’t believe his eyes. It was a Flexible Flyer!

Louie put on his boots and jacket.

“Here’s a leash for Scout,” Uncle Sam said.

In one hand Louie held Scout on her leash and in the other, the sled rope. Scout pulled Louie and Louie pulled the sled all the way to the park. They went so fast they outdistanced Uncle Sam. When 27

they reached the park, a gaggle of other kids with sleds were already there.

Louie turned and asked Uncle Sam, “Aren’t those some of the boys from the youth group who went with us to Boston last fall?”

“Looks like them.” Uncle Sam waved. Louie gave Scout’s leash to him and prepared to make his first sled run down the hill. But Scout pulled away. She bounded down the hill ahead of the sled, dragging her leash, and was waiting for Louie when he came to a stop. She started to lick the snow off Louie’s face.

“Stop! That tickles,” Louie laughed. “Come on, girl. You can help me pull the sled back up the hill.”

Once at the top of the hill again, he found Uncle Sam talking to two other boys.

“See you back at the house for cocoa. Bring Scout and these two back with you,” Uncle Sam called over his shoulder to Louie while heading back to the house to be with Ma. She had stayed behind, as her health was still too fragile to be out long in cold, damp air.

Louie made several more runs with the other two boys. One of them called out on the way down the hill, “Hey, weren’t you at the games with us last fall?”

“Yep. Name’s Louie. Aren’t you one of the Burke boys?”

Their sleds came to a halt at the bottom of the hill.

“I’m Billy. My brother Dan’s over there.” He pointed to the taller boy just walking up the hill with his sled behind him.

“That your dog?” Billy asked.

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“Yep. Her name’s Scout.” Scout’s nose came out of the snowbank she’d been exploring. Her tail brushed against Billy’s leg. “You and Dan coming over for some cocoa?”

“Sure. Matthew’s over there. Can he come, too?”

Late in the afternoon, Dan, Billy, Matthew, and three other boys who had heard the invitation joined Louie and followed him, pulling their sleds behind them. When they arrived, they left their sleds leaning upright against the house.

After the boys had come inside and shed their jackets, Louie introduced them to Ma. “This is my mother, Mrs. Hollander.”

“And these are the Boston American fans who went with us to the World Series games last fall,” Uncle Sam said as he poured hot cocoa into each of seven waiting cups.

“When does the season start?” asked Billy.

Dan answered his brother. “When spring comes and there’s no more snow on the ground, stupid.”

“Actually, the first game for Boston is scheduled for April fourteenth,” Uncle Sam said.

“Think they’ll win again this year?” Matthew asked.

“Well, they still have Cy Young,” Louie said.

“Ye going to be staying here long?” one of the other boys asked Louie.

“For awhile. Ma’s been very sick and needs to rest, so we’re sort of on vacation,” Louie added.

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“Good cocoa,” Dan said, “but we were told to be home by dark.

Come on, Billy,” he called to his brother, “or we’ll be late and then there’ll be trouble.”

“Us, too,” said one of the others. “See ye ’round, Louie.”

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CHAPTER 5

Abraham and Isaac Are you willing?” Uncle Sam asked Louie at breakfast the next morning. “Today the youth group—boys and girls such as Charlie, Billy, and Dan—are taking part in the worship service. I’d like to have you participate, too.”

“What would I have to do?” Louie asked.

“Our reading is about Abraham and his son Isaac. I’d like you to read the Isaac part.”

“If it’s just reading, I think I can do that,” Louie said. He didn’t feel comfortable performing in front of a whole group of people, but reading he could handle. When it was time for rehearsal, he willingly went with Uncle Sam to the church. Seeing that Charlie and Ben were already there, he rushed up to greet his best friend.

“I’ve got so much to tell you. Ma and I are on extended leave …”

“Fill them in after the service, Louie,” Uncle Sam interrupted.

“We need to go over all our roles, and we don’t have much time left before worship.”

After rehearsing their parts, Louie sat with the others in front of the church—his place in the script marked. Some of the boys and girls were dressed in costumes so they could pantomime the action while Louie and others read the text from Genesis 22.

Louie stood up to read his part. “Father?” He looked at Charlie as he read. Charlie was the tallest boy of the group and was reading the role of Father Abraham.

“Yes, my son,” Charlie said, reading his part.

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“The fire and wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

“And the two of them went on together,” read another member of the youth group, whose part was that of narrator. “When they reached the place called Moriah, Abraham built a flat place to be used as an altar out of stones that were lying around. He tied up his son Isaac and placed him down on top of the altar. Then he reached for his knife that he carried with him.”1 The two boys who were acting out the story froze. One boy had been tied up and was lying down. Another boy held a knife over him.

Then Ben stood up from his place in the front row and read from his script, “Abraham, Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy. Now I know you fear God.”2 The two boys who were acting out the story dispersed back to the pews. Ben hobbled up to the front of the church with his cane and sat in a chair Uncle Sam brought forward for him. He reframed the story for the congregation.

“Abraham wanted a son so badly. When he was very old, ninety years old in fact, his wife, Sarah, too old to even consider bearing a child, gave birth to Isaac. In this reading, Abraham, now a proud father, is ready to kill his miracle son. Why? I asked myself this question as I read this story over and over again. Isaac must have asked him the same question or at least asked him what he thought he was doing. Was Abraham crazy or drunk?

“All of us have a father, some fathers are great and others are not so great. But in this story Abraham, Isaac’s father, was getting ready to kill him.

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“As most of you know, Charlie and I lost our father when his ship went down at sea. I liked going fishing with him, but I didn’t like him when he was drunk and beat on my mother. Sometimes I wished him dead. But I would never have killed him, and I don’t think he would ever have wanted to kill me. He taught Charlie and me to sail and fish. Abraham must have taught his son Isaac many useful things as well. In this reading Abraham is a very old man and he is with the son God had promised him.

“Can you imagine? Here is a father who had longed for this son and heir, and God had promised him grandchildren. But now God asked Abraham to prepare to kill his favorite son. And Abraham does exactly what God tells him to. He binds his son and places him on the altar and gets his knife ready. Then God tells him to stop. Isaac, in obedience to his father, allows this to happen without resisting or questioning.

“Now, I don’t know about you, but I didn’t always do what my father told me to do, especially my father who didn’t always do what he said he would do either, so I didn’t trust him.

“Do I trust God? Do you? I’ve asked myself many times if I trust a God who would make a father get ready to kill his son, especially since I had an earthly father I didn’t trust. But God showed me that I could trust Him. He took care of me when I was powerless out in a boat on the sea in that hurricane. Just before I blacked out with exhaustion, hunger, and cold, I heard Jesus’ voice and saw His face.

He told me His Father God would take care of me and that He died in my place. So that’s why each of us can trust God. He sent His only Son to die for each of us so that we might live. Amen.”

Louie thought about his own father. He was a good father. It must have been just about this time last year his pa died from that fall down 33

the lighthouse tower steps. Louie’s heart pinged with pain. But after he looked up and saw Sam Hornblower, the pinging stopped.

“Well done, boys.” Charlie’s ma congratulated them after the service.

“Can Louie come to our house for dinner?” Charlie asked her.

“Sure. Think we have enough chowdah to go round.”

1

Verse 10.

2

Verse 12.

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CHAPTER 6

At the Missens Charlie told Louie he had a job.

“Doing what?” Louie asked him.

The two of them were walking, because only Ben, Ma, and Charlie’s sister, Lucy, could fit in the buggy. They passed the village post office, then turned left to go down the hill toward the harbor and Charlie’s house.

“Neighbor brings Ma and Ben to and from church because we still don’t have a horse of our own.”

The snow had stopped and the sun was shining. Snow that had covered the street and boardwalks had melted. Slush and mud were everywhere. Louie and Charlie stepped around and over puddles and through the mud. One of Louie’s boots came off as he tried to lift one foot out of a particularly treacherous muddy spot. Charlie pulled while Louie kept his other foot firmly on the driest spot he could find. The two of them finally managed to free Louie’s boot.

Eventually they made it onto the boardwalk that careened its way down the hill toward the ocean. Fifteen minutes passed until they were on solid footing and could resume talking.

“About your new job, where is it and what do you do?” Louie turned and asked Charlie.

“It’s in the ice house. After the ice is cut into chunks from the frozen river,” Charlie stepped over another muddy puddle, “I help deliver the chunks of ice to iceboxes after school. Ma works, too. She has a part-time job at the fish cannery. Having both of us working helps pay Ben’s doctoring and tutoring bills. A tutor comes to the 35

house and helps Ben complete his high school courses. Ben gets help once a week walking with his peg leg and practicing his two-fingered writing and eating. Reverend Hornblower comes over, and they read and study the Bible together.”

By this time the two boys were halfway down the hill and had come to the front door of the Missens’ house, a two-story gray box with a widow’s walk on top. While they waited for someone to open the door, Louie observed the peeling paint on the window ledges and shutters.

Charlie’s sister, Lucy, opened the door. “Hey, you two—better take off those muddy boots or Ma will get after both of you. She’s in the kitchen with Ben heating up the fish chowdah.”

“It smells good,” Louie said. “I’m starving.”

Mrs. Missen plopped a plate of bread in the center of the table.

“You boys can nevah get enough to eat. You’ll just have to fill up on this bread.”

As she spooned out the fish chowder, she asked Louie, “How come you’re here instead of manning the lighthouse?”

“Because Ma caught pneumonia right after Christmas and almost died. Then we had a shipwreck on the ledge …”

“Shipwreck! What happened?” Ben said after taking a spoonful of soup.

“Well, the lighthouse lamp went out when I slept through a watch because Ma was so sick she couldn’t get up. Then I helped rescue all the ship’s crew before the ship sank. All five of them plus Ma and I lived on sardines and a few cans of hardtack because we ran out of all the other food we had stored in the house.”

36

“Must have been a full house,” Charlie said. “Where’d you all sleep?”

“Well, most of us had to sleep two to a bed. The Chinese cook slept in my other bed and I slept with Abram. Ma slept on the parlor settee.”

“You mean the Abram who has the Huck Finn lead in the play?”

Charlie asked. “I’m in that same play. Are you going to be here to come and see us?”

“Yes, to both questions,” Louie answered. “And the captain of the ship was Captain Spade,” he added.

“You mean the Captain Spade whose wife’s body you found?” All five of the Missens tuned in.

“The same one—now he’s under arrest,” Louie continued.

“Why?” “Because Harry testified …” Louie started to tell them.

“Testified!?” Everyone else said at once.

Louie put down his spoon and took a breath. He hadn’t had a chance to eat anything.

“Ma and I had to come before the Lighthouse Board because the owner of the Carlton Company and Captain Spade accused us of negligence for letting the light go out and causing the wreck of the Sea Mist. They …”

Lucy interrupted. “That’s where Ma works!” “… claimed Ma and I had to pay for the ship and all its cargo.”

Louie finally completed his sentence.

“Did you … do you have to pay?” Lucy asked.

37

“No. We were found not guilty. But Captain Spade was put under arrest because Harry …”

“Who’s Harry?”

“One of the crew—the one who’s now manning the lighthouse with Aussie while we’re here. Harry told the Lighthouse Board that it was no rogue wave that washed Abram’s mother overboard.”

“Then—do you think the captain threw her overboard?” Charlie asked. “Poor Abram.”

“I don’t think Abram knows about his pa yet. But Uncle Sam took him to help identify the jewelry found on her body to see if it belonged to his mother,” Louie went on.

“Guess there will be a trial,” Ben said.

“Captain Spade lost a leg, too, because he jumped in the cold water and it got gangrene,” Louie said.

Ben looked down at his prosthesis and mumbled, “That makes two of us.”

“And I passed my exams,” Louie added, “so Miss Gilbert gave me a break and here I am.”

“Lucky you! Our spring break doesn’t start until a week after the play. By the way, the play is this weekend at the community center.

Our school doesn’t have an auditorium or a stage,” Charlie said.

“What part are you playing?” Louie asked. He finally managed to finish his chowder while everyone else cleared the dishes from the table.

“I’m on the stage crew and I understudy one of the characters,” Charlie said. “We’ve been rehearsing every weekend and have dress rehearsal this week.”

38

“OK, you two, go get out of my kitchen,” Mrs. Missen said to Charlie and Louie. “Reverend Hornblower said he’d come in the buggy to fetch ye after he does his visitin’.”

39

40

CHAPTER 7

Burying the Body Buggies are here!” Lucy called up the stairs just as Charlie and Louie had plopped down onto one of the beds in the room Charlie shared with Ben. When Louie looked out the window, he could see two buggies parked out in front of the Missens’ house. Both were black, but one was enclosed with the driver sitting up in front. In the first buggy— the open one—Louie thought he saw a red cape and knew it was probably Ma. There was another woman with her and a boy who looked like Abram. Uncle Sam called from the bottom of the stairs.

“Louie! Thought you’d like to go with Abram and his aunt for the burial.”

“All right,” Louie answered in a less-than-convincing voice. He didn’t like cemeteries. They gave him the creeps, and he really wanted to spend some time with Charlie. But Abram was a new friend and he probably should go with them.

“Hi, Louie. Hi, Charlie,” Abram said but didn’t look at them.

Instead, his face was buried in a scarf. Abram’s eyes seemed to stare at nothing. He looked up. Louie could see that his mouth formed a tight line across his face and his brow was furrowed. Louie sat down beside him.

“This is my Aunt Gertrude,” he mumbled. “I live with her now.

That’s my mother back there—or was.” He pointed to the black covered buggy.

The two buggies pulled up at the cemetery beside a freshly dug hole in the ground. The driver of the second buggy got down from 41

his seat and opened up the back and motioned to Uncle Sam. Abram’s aunt wailed and Ma wiped her eyes.

“I’ll need you and Louie to help carry the casket, Abram,” Uncle Sam said. “Do you think you can do it, boys?” Louie had never carried a casket before. It looked like just a simple long wooden box.

Shouldn’t be too difficult, he thought. He looked over at Abram, who squared his shoulders, walked over to the casket, and threw himself on top of it.

“Momma, I don’t want you to leave me!”

Uncle Sam gently pulled Abram off the top of the casket and placed his hands on the side with the rope handle. The driver of the buggy carried the front end. Louie took the other side and Uncle Sam the rear. They gently lowered the casket into the hole prepared for it. Uncle Sam read: “We commend to Almighty God our sister, Amanda, and commit her body to the ground: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

Then he threw some dirt on top of the casket and asked Louie, Ma, Abram, and Abram’s aunt to do the same.

Abram clung tightly to Louie, who was shaking. He’d heard Uncle Sam talk about the Holy Ghost, and he was sure he’d see ghosts of bodies come out of the ground. He couldn’t wait to get out of there and was the first one in the open buggy.

The black hearse buggy drove off in one direction. Uncle Sam’s buggy went in the direction of Abram’s aunt’s house.

“How’s Jack doing?” Aunt Gertrude asked Uncle Sam after she had served them all tea and biscuits and they were seated in the parlor. “He wouldn’t let me bring Abram to visit, said he’d be home soon.”

42

“He will be—back soon, that is—if they’ll let him,” Uncle Sam responded, keeping his head down while sipping the hot tea.

Louie thought, Maybe Abram doesn’t know. Uncle Sam looked up and over at Louie. He moved his head ever so slightly from one side to another. Louie thought he was saying no.

Louie got the hint.

“How’s the play coming along?” he asked Abram. “Are you still Jim?” “Yeah,” Abram replied, “and I get to wear lots of shoe polish to make me look black.”

“Can you reserve some tickets for all of us?” Uncle Sam asked. “I promised Louie that I’d bring him.”

“Sure. Which night?”

“Let’s make it opening night so we can clap for you!” Ma said.

So, it was decided that Abram would reserve three tickets for them to Friday night’s performance.

43

44

CHAPTER 8

The Play ALL SOLD OUT Louie read the sign on the poster by the post office.

Hope Abram reserved some tickets for us. He certainly didn’t want to miss Abram’s performance as Jim or miss Charlie moving stage sets. They had even invited him to come backstage during intermission and to attend their cast party.

Louie thought the weekend would never come. All his friends were in school during the day. Uncle Sam was busy and Ma spent her time resting and knitting. He walked to the Carnegie Library and borrowed a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to read and refresh his memory of the story.

One afternoon after the snow had melted, Louie took Scout running by the waterfront where it wasn’t so muddy. He sat on one of the benches with Scout lying at his feet and counted the number of fishing boats and lobster traps hanging from sides of buildings.

Scout whined.

“Are you bored, too?” Louie asked as he leaned down to scratch behind her ears. I wonder how Aussie and Harry are doing back at the lighthouse and if they miss us.

On Thursday Charlie showed up after school with their tickets for the play.

“Abram asked me to give you these.”

“Gee, thanks. I thought you had all forgotten.”

45

“Gotta go,” Charlie said. “Dress rehearsal tonight. Here’s cross hand’n ye.”

Finally, it was Friday night. Louie, Uncle Sam, and Ma arrived at the community center in time to be seated in their reserved seats.

Louie read and reread the program while waiting for the play to begin.

The curtain opened and the magic began. There was Huck Finn talking to Aunt Polly Watson in what looked like one side of the inside of a house. Then Tom Sawyer ambled onstage and Huck Finn came out of the house. There in a corner of the stage, leaning against a fake tree, Louie saw Jim. Was that really Abram? His face and hands were blackened. All Louie could see were his eyes and his lips.

“Who dah?”3 Abram—alias Jim—said as he looked around. The other characters were hiding behind other fake trees.

“Dog my cats ef I didn’t hear sumf’n’. Must be ’em witches agin.

Well, I’se gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin.”

Then, Abram sat down, leaned against one of the fake trees, and pretended to sleep.

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer crept over and removed Abram’s cap and put it on a tree limb above him and then disappeared offstage.

Abram stretched and put his hand to his head and felt for his cap.

“Wher’n dat cap done gawn to?”

A child’s voice from the audience yelled. “Look up!”

And as if on cue Abram looked up above him and grabbed the cap and he, too, disappeared offstage. Louie wondered if that was Charlie moving props behind the curtain as it came across and covered the stage.

46

While the scenery was being changed, the boy playing Huck Finn came out in front of the curtain chased by someone who staggered across the stage like a drunken man. Must be Huck’s father. The scene reminded Louie of the time he and Charlie had been whitewashing the tower and Charlie told him he could relate better to Huck Finn than to Tom Sawyer because of his own drunken father.

When the curtain opened on the second scene, Louie leaned over to Ma, who was sitting beside him, and said, “Wow, it really looks like they’re on a raft.”

There on the fake raft stood Abram, pole in hand, with the boy playing Huck Finn seated in front of the raft.

“Are you rich?” asked Huck Finn.

“No, but I been rich once and gwyne be rich agin. Once I had fourteen dollars, but speculated it in stock and got busted.”

“Which stock?” asked Huck Finn.

“Livestock. Cattle. But I isn’t gwyne risk no more money in stock.

De cow up and died.”

“So, you lost the ten dollars.”

“Almost all, ’bout nine of it. I sold de hide and tail for a dollar and ten cents.”

“What did you spend it on, Jim?” asked Hick Finn.

“Lent it to ’nother nigger. But couldn’t k’leck dat money back.”

“Well, that’s all right, Jim, as long as you’re going to be rich again some time.”

47

Abram—as Jim—stopped poling, stood up tall, and said, “I’se rich now. I owns myself and I’se worth eight hundred dollars. I wish’t I had de money, I wouldn’t want no mo’.”4 Louie wondered why Jim thought of himself in terms of money.

Then he remembered that Jim was a slave, and slaves were valued by how much they would sell for on the auction block. Louie had never thought of himself in terms of dollars and cents. Then he remembered the book report he had written for Miss Gilbert on Uncle Tom’s Cabin and what he thought about slavery.

During intermission the boys from the youth group came to find Louie.

“Want to come meet some members of our cast?”

“Sure,” Louie replied. But on the way toward the stage door, he spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

No, it couldn’t be her, he thought, she’s in school in Boston. But it was—Louisa Peabody.

“Hey, Louie,” she called and waved to him to come over.

“What are you doing here?” he asked when the group of boys he was with reached her side.

“I’m on spring break. What about you?” she asked. “I thought you were manning a lighthouse on Two Tree Island.”

“Tell you later. We’re on our way backstage. Want to join us?”

“You can come, too, but hurry,” Dan said. “We haven’t got much time until the second act.”

Backstage they found Charlie moving some sets around.

“Where’s Abram?” Louie asked.

48

“Getting his makeup fixed up,” Charlie answered. “When the floodlight gets too hot and he’s onstage for too long, the black gets smeared and he has to be made up again. How do you like the show?”

“It’s great,” they all said in unison.

During the second act, Louie practically fell out of his seat laughing at the antics of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as they tried to free Jim, alias Abram, who had been caught and was chained to an iron bedstead.

“Don’t forget—come to the cast party,” Abram said when Louie and Uncle Sam came backstage after the curtain call to congratulate the cast.

“Louisa, too,” Charlie called.

3

All quotes are taken from Barnes and Noble classic edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry

Finn, Barnes and Noble Classic edition, 2003.

4

Adventures of Huck Finn, 48–50.

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50

CHAPTER 9

The Cast Party Can I, Ma?” Louie leaned forward to ask from the back seat of the buggy as it headed for Uncle Sam’s house.

“Can you what?”

“Go to the cast party?”

“The question is ‘may I,’ Louie.”

“Will you?” Uncle Sam chuckled as he turned to Louie’s mother.

“Will you join me as a chaperone?”

“Will we also take Louisa?” Louie added. By now all of them were laughing.

“I guess there will now be four of us going to the cast party,” Ma said as she turned around and winked at Louie.

So, on the night of the party they collected Louisa from her house to make up their foursome.

“Look Louie,” Louisa said. “I brought some of those new molded records Papa bought for our phonograph. The cylinders last longer than the others and we can dance to them.”

Louie handled the cylinders carefully, then gave them back to Louisa. He placed a blanket over her legs, and Louisa put one hand in her muff. She sure is pretty, he thought. I wonder if she still likes me.

When their buggy pulled up in front of the entrance to the community center, Louie read the banner that hung over the front door: 51

CONGRATULATIONS HUCK FINN CAST He watched as Uncle Sam hitched the horse and helped Ma step down from her side of the buggy. Then he took Louisa’s hand and helped her step down from her seat in the buggy.

Gaslights illuminated the large room inside. Tables were loaded with cookies, nuts, and bottles of Moxi. An upright piano stood in a corner of the room. Louie and Louisa walked over to join the other boys and girls gathered around the phonograph borrowed from the library for the occasion. A voice singing “My Wild Irish Rose” came through the speaker. Louie and Louisa joined the others in singing along with the voice on the recording. When that song had ended, Louisa held out her two-cylinder recordings.

“Wow,” Dan said, “She’s brought ‘Meet me in St. Louis,’ and ‘Hello My Baby.’ Let her through!” A throng of boys and girls surrounded Louisa and Louie was edged out. One of them wound up the phonograph, and Louie heard the music squeaking through the speaker horn as he made his way over to the table and picked up a Moxi.

Left out again. He hunched his shoulders and sulked, recalling the night that the other boys got to ride in her father’s horseless carriage with Louisa, while he had to ride in the horse-drawn buggy all the way to the train station.

Each recording lasted only about four minutes. The circle around Louisa broke up, and the boys and girls headed over to the table that held the snacks and pop. One of the chaperones took out some sheet music and began to play the piano. Uncle Sam and Ma moved the phonograph carefully to one side and started dancing together to the 52

tune of Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.” Louie and the other boys watched them but did not ask any of the girls to dance. Instead, the boys drifted over to one side of the room and the girls to the other.

Each girl sat on a chair and waited expectantly. The boys gathered in a circle with their hands in their pockets—their elbows nudging each other.

Uncle Sam went over to where Louisa was sitting and asked her to dance, while Ma approached Abram. Now there were two couples on the dance floor. Finally, Louie and a few of the other boys moved out of their huddle and sauntered over to the girls’ side. But Uncle Sam stopped Louie in the center.

“Here, Louie, you take over. My feet are tired. Your mother and I will sit this one out.” Louie didn’t quite know what to do. He just stood there looking at Louisa.

“If you want to do the two-step, Louie, just put your hands on my waist like this.” She took Louie’s hands and put one on either side of her waist. Then she showed him how to do the two-step. Louie felt like he had two left feet because he couldn’t make his feet go the right way in time to the music. Soon two other couples joined them, all trying to move in two-step time to the music.

Charlie cut in on Louie, and Louie went over to talk to Abram, who was standing with the rest of the boys.

“How are you doing?” Louie asked Abram. “How did you learn all that dialect you said in the play?”

“I just kept reading the Huck Finn book and practicing saying the words the way I thought Jim in the book said them. Did my words come out OK?” “Sure did! You were great.”

53

Louie wanted to talk to Abram about his pa but didn’t dare. He still didn’t know if Abram knew about him being arrested.

“Thought Pa would come,” Abram said as if reading Louie’s thoughts, “but he didn’t show. I guess he’s still in the hospital.”

Louie shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then looked down at them. He wished he could tell Abram anything else but what he knew was true. Maybe tomorrow, he thought.

54

CHAPTER 10

Finding Out Does Abram

know,” Louie asked Uncle Sam, “that his pa is a

suspect in the drowning of his ma?”

They were just finishing breakfast the morning after the cast party.

“Not yet. I wanted to wait so it wouldn’t interfere with his performance in Huck Finn. But I need to talk to him now that the show is over. Want to go with me to visit him this afternoon?”

“I guess so,” Louie answered, “but he might get really upset if he finds out his father is being accused of pushing his mother overboard.”

“I expect he will. That’s why we have to be there for him. First, we better stop at the police station to see if Captain Spade is being held here waiting to stand trial or if he is still in the hospital.”

Louie felt anxiety knotting his stomach. Should he protect Abram from the knowledge of what his father might have done to his mother?

Should he even be there when Uncle Sam told him the unpleasant truth?

As if he could read Louie’s anxious thoughts, Uncle Sam settled the matter as they were hitching the horse to the buggy.

“I’m counting on you and Charlie to help him through this.”

The officer behind the desk looked up at Louie and Sam Hornblower when the two of them entered the police station.

“May I help you, Reverend?”

“Yes. I’m trying to find out if Captain Jack Spade is in jail here.”

55

“Yep. Arrived last week. Says he don’t belong here. You want to post bail? We only got two cells back there, and he’s a cantankerous one, he is. He’s bein’ held for jury trial tomorrow.”

“No. I’m not here to post bail. But you can ask him if he’ll see me.”

Louie watched the policeman saunter over to the locked door and open the padlock with one of the keys that dangled from his belt.

Louie heard Captain Spade shouting, “Ain’t seein’ that lyin’ preacher!”

The policeman returned, shaking his head. “Says he don’t want to see ye, Reverend. Sorry. That his son?” he said, pointing to Louie.

“No. His son doesn’t know he’s here. We’re on our way to tell him now. Please tell Captain Spade that we watched his son perform the role of Jim in the Huck Finn play that just ended.”

“And that he was disappointed that his pa couldn’t come to watch him, too,” Louie added.

Louie followed Uncle Sam down the steps of the police station to where their horse and buggy was hitched to the post.

On the way to Abram’s house, Louie, seething about Captain Spade’s attitude toward Uncle Sam, said through clenched teeth, “Wonder if I should have just let that scoundrel die, instead of keeping him from drowning.”

“No, Louie. You did the right thing. You performed a truly heroic deed in helping to save his life. God gives even scoundrels a second chance.”

Abram came to the door when Uncle Sam knocked.

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“I enjoyed your performance in Huck Finn,” Uncle Sam said to Abram as Abram led the two of them into the parlor, where his aunt was seated, knitting. She stood to greet them. Uncle Sam took her hand and said, “Your nephew has real talent.”

He turned to Abram. “I have some news about your father, Abram, that I must now share with you. I waited to tell you until after the performance, but I think you need to know where he is and why.” He paused.

Louie moved over to sit next to Abram.

“Your father moved back to town last week …”

Abram interrupted, “Then why didn’t he come to see the play?”

“Because he couldn’t. He’s in jail.”

“What?” Abram stood up. Louie put his hand on Abram’s arm and guided him back down to his seat beside him. “Why?” “You remember Harry, who was on the Sea Mist and helped man the light on Two Tree Island with you and Louie? Well, he told me that the night your mother went overboard, there was no rogue wave as your father told you. The police think she may have been pushed overboard.”

“You don’t mean …” Abram hesitated.

“That your father is the prime suspect. That’s why he is in jail.”

“No!” Abram cried. “He wouldn’t have!”

“He goes on trial tomorrow, Abram.”

Aunt Gertrude put down her knitting and pulled out her handkerchief.

57

“My poor sister! I warned her about him many times, but she wouldn’t listen. He’s a …”

“He hasn’t been convicted yet and he needs your prayers—both of you. In fact, I think you should come to the trial tomorrow—that would mean you’d miss school, Abram. I’ll talk to your teacher.”

Abram jumped up and pounded his fists into the air. Louie stood up beside him but didn’t know what to say. He was scared he might get punched. Then, Abram put both his arms down stiff against his sides, hands still balled into fists, and his body shook.

“How would you like Louie to stay here with you tonight?” Uncle Sam asked. “Then we’ll pick you both up tomorrow and be there with you through the trial.”

Abram just shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t care,” he said.

Aunt Gertrude walked Sam Hornblower to the door, but Louie stayed, still sitting near Abram. But he didn’t want to move too close to him because he was afraid of his friend’s anger.

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CHAPTER 11

The Trial All rise for the Honorable Judge Eagleton!”

Louie, who had arrived earlier with Abram, Abram’s aunt, Uncle Sam, and Ma, was seated in the front row. Captain Spade had arrived just after them with Mr. Jones, his attorney. All eyes had been on the captain, who made a dashing figure in his blue jacket with brass buttons. He had taken off his captain’s hat and with a flourish placed it on the table. They all rose when the judge entered the courtroom.

Louie glanced around to see if Evelyn Carlton, Captain Spade’s girlfriend, who was with him when the Sea Mist wrecked, was in the courtroom. He finally found her in the back row with her father, the owner of the Carlton Company and the Sea Mist.

“The court will come to order!”

Judge Eagleton banged his gavel. When he was satisfied that everyone was listening, he said, “Bailiff, what case do you present to this court?”

The bailiff announced, “The State versus Captain Jack Spade, who has been charged with the murder of his wife, Amanda Spade.”

Abram choked. Louie turned to his friend. He pointed to the man standing next to Ben Missen. “Look, there’s Albert.”

Louie whispered to Uncle Sam, “Who are those twelve people?”

“That’s the jury,” Uncle Sam whispered back. “Those men have been picked to decide whether or not Captain Spade is guilty.”

After the judge was seated, everyone in the courtroom sat down too.

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“Jack Spade,” Judge Eagleton turned toward the table where Mr. Jones and Abram’s father sat, “how do you plead?”

Mr. Jones rose and said to the judge, “My client pleads not guilty, Your Honor.”

The judge turned toward the twelve people sitting as jurors and instructed them.

“You are here to determine whether or not there is enough evidence to convict Captain Jack Spade, the defendant, for the murder of his wife, Amanda. You must decide if the evidence presented by the prosecution shows probable cause and proof without a reasonable doubt.”

Judge Eagleton turned next to the prosecutor’s table.

“Who is here from the attorney general’s office to present the case?”

Another man rose from his seat. “Mr. Gray, Your Honor.”

“You may proceed, Mr. Gray.”

Mr. Gray shuffled some papers on the table and gave them to the judge.

“I present to the court the paper signed by Abram Spade, stating that the body found on Two Tree Island and being held at the morgue was his mother, Amanda, and the coroner’s report.”

He handed two sets of papers to the judge. Mr. Gray turned to the jury.

“This coroner’s report indicates that he found Mrs. Spade had sustained internal injuries from a probable blow to her head before she drowned.

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“Next, I submit the brooch found on her clothes, that her son, Abram, identified as his mother’s.”

Abram coughed. Ma handed him her handkerchief to put across his mouth. Captain Spade turned around and looked at Abram. Louie saw that the captain’s mouth twisted grotesquely. Louie couldn’t decide if it was a growl or a grimace of pain. But Abram didn’t see his father’s face because the handkerchief covered most of his.

“I’d like to call my first witness, Your Honor. Will Albert Newburgh please take the stand?”

Louie watched as Albert rose and went over to sit in the witness chair to be sworn in.

“Were you a member of Captain Spade’s crew?”

“Yep,” Albert answered.

“Were you on the ship when the victim was aboard?”

Mr. Jones rose. “Objection, Your Honor. The word victim is leading the witness.”

“Objection sustained,” Judge Eagleton said. “Mr. Gray, will you please rephrase your question?”

“Were you one of the crew for the ship when Mrs. Spade disappeared?”

“Yep. She came on board with Captain Spade.”

“Did she disembark when he did?”

“Nope. She t’warn’t nowhere in sight for las’ couple days of fishin’.”

“Did you have rough weather during that fishing trip?”

“Nope. T’warn’t hardly no wind to fill the sails.”

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“What do you think happened to Mrs. Spade?”

“Objection!” Mr. Jones called out.

But Albert said anyway, “Foul play, I ’magine.”

“What do you mean by foul play?”

“Well. I heard the missus arguin’ with Capt’n Jack—that’s what we crew called ’im—’twas more like fightin’ than arguin’. Heard her scream at ’im the night I was on watch, ‘What’d you do with our money?’ Now I s’pect he lost it gamblin’. Used to gamble with h’m some. That’s how come I got hired agin fer the Sea Mist. I owed him money, so he said I could work it off as crew.”

“Objection, Your Honor. Irrelevant,” Mr. Jones said to Judge Eagleton.

“Overruled. Continue, Mr. Gray.”

“You said you suspected foul play. Why is that?” “’Cause of him needin’ money and him takin’ up with her.”

Albert pointed to Evelyn.

“Thank you, Mr. Newburgh. You may step down.”

“I call Mr. Elmer Bonds.”

A stout, bald-headed man waddled to the witness chair and squashed his bulbous body into the chair.

“Please state your occupation for the court, Mr. Bonds.”

“I’m the loan manager for the Rockvalle Bank.”

“Was Captain Spade one of your customers?”

“He was. That is, he used to be one of our bank’s customers. We made several personal loans to him in the past, but he never paid 62

them back, so we told him he couldn’t do business with us anymore.

Our bank gave him six months to pay off the loans.”

“And did he pay off the loans during that six-month period?”

“No. He still needs to pay back those loans.”

“That’s all, Your Honor.”

Louie was relieved when Judge Eagleton announced, “Court recessed for ten minutes.”

Louie thought Abram might be pretty upset about Albert’s last remark. Then he remembered that Evelyn was with Captain Jack on the Sea Mist, and he suspected that Mr. Carlton had lots of money. I bet he wanted Abram’s mother out of the way so he could get hold of Mr. Carlton’s money by courting and marrying Evelyn. Louie followed Uncle Sam, Aunt Gertrude, Ma, and Abram out of the courtroom.

They met Mr. Jones, who said to Abram, “Your pa saw you sitting behind him and wanted me to thank you for coming.” Abram just shrugged his shoulders and turned away.

“What are you doing here?” Ma asked Ben, who walked with his cane over to see them.

“Well, the captain and I have lots in common. Maybe he’d be less bitter if he could see someone else had lost some fingers and a leg ’cause of frostbite.”

“Good idea,” Uncle Sam said, smiling at Ben. “That might help him.”

I helped him, too, Louie thought. I covered him with my coat and made him breathe. At that moment, Louie saw the court bailiff come toward them.

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“Court’s about to resume,” he said. “If you want to be admitted and get seats before the judge returns, you better hustle.”

They hurried back to their seats just before the judge entered.

“All rise,” said the bailiff.

Judge Eagleton entered and sat down. He pounded his gavel.

“The court will now listen to the defense.”

Mr. Jones got up and went over to stand before the jury.

“Members of the jury, you have seen and heard the testimony presented by the prosecution. But before you determine from their evidence that Captain Spade is guilty of the charge, remember you are to come to a decision based on each of you determining that you have no reasonable doubts about his culpability in Amanda’s death.

Did you hear any evidence from any of the witnesses from the prosecution who actually saw him push her overboard? Did anyone report to you that Captain Spade actually hit her on the head to render her unconscious and then drag her unconscious body, pick it up, and toss it overboard? Even though one of the witnesses thought Mrs. Spade could have been a victim of foul play, you can only speculate what he meant by that comment. You need to come to your own conclusion. Make sure that your conclusion is based on fact. You heard only that he took out bank loans and did not pay them back and that he was a gambling man. You heard Albert tell about Amanda Spade shouting at the captain about the money he had lost at the gambling tables. You need to disregard Albert’s speculation about the foul play he suspected. That’s only his opinion.

“The testimony before you today does not prove that Captain Spade gave her that head wound or that he pushed her overboard.”

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Mr. Jones turned back to Judge Eagleton. “The defense rests, Your Honor.”

“The jury will now be excused to deliberate. Remember,” the judge said to the twelve jurors, “that you are charged with determining Captain Spade’s guilt or innocence based on the evidence presented to you by the prosecution. You will be secluded until you have reached a unanimous decision. This court is in recess until your foreman notifies me that you have reached a decision in this case.”

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CHAPTER 12

Captain Spade’s Fate Captain Spade stood up on his one leg.

Louie watched two policemen hold on to his arms, one on either side, to help him out of the courtroom.

Abram’s eyes widened and his lip trembled. “What happens …” he hesitated then continued, “… to my pa?”

“He waits until the jury reaches its verdict,” Uncle Sam said.

“I want to believe he didn’t kill Momma, but I don’t trust him,” Abram said with a sigh. He looked down at the floor and then continued. “And I heard Momma say, when she didn’t think I was listening, that she didn’t trust him either.”

A sudden picture popped into Louie’s head of Captain Spade’s look back in the hospital. His eyes had opened in surprise when Uncle Sam had told him that his wife had visited Two Tree Island before his ship wrecked on the rocks.

Louie remembered his words: “She couldn’t have …”

I wonder if he’d tell me what he meant by that if I asked him?

Louie looked for Ben and found him outside the courtroom.

“Can I come with you when you go to see Captain Spade?”

“Yes,” Ben said with a puzzled expression. Louie didn’t want to tell him the real reason for wanting to talk to Abram’s father, so he said, “Maybe he’d like to see me because I saved his life.”

“I’m sure he’d like to see you. I would, if you’d saved my life.”

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But Louie wasn’t sure. He really wanted to see Captain Spade to talk to him about his reaction in the hospital when Uncle Sam told him his wife visited Two Tree Island. Instead, he turned to Abram.

“Do you want to come, too?”

“No! Why should I?” Abram kicked the wall behind him.

“Abram can stay with us. I’ll go ask the police officer over there if the captain can have you two as visitors,” Uncle Sam said. “If you both are right, he just might be interested in talking to Louie as well as to Ben.” He motioned to Louie and Ben. “Wait here.”

When the policeman nodded and looked toward them, Louie knew that he had given permission. Uncle Sam beckoned them to come over toward him.

“This policeman said you could have a few minutes if you hurry.

Just follow him to that room down the hall.”

“Two boys want to see you,” the policeman announced when they entered the room where Captain Spade and Mr. Jones were sitting talking, their backs to the door. Another policeman stood guard.

“I’m Louie Hollander, and this is Charlie’s brother Ben. You remember me, don’t you? I helped save your life.”

Captain Spade turned around and stared at Louie.

“Why, yes. I guess you did—save my life, I mean. But what difference does that make now?” he said with bitterness burning up the air between them. Louie felt the heat from the flames.

Before the captain could say anything further, Ben sat down in another chair near where the captain was sitting and lifted up his 68

pant leg. “See, I lost my leg from frostbite, too.” Then he showed the captain his hands. “And my fingers. I’ll help you learn to walk after you get fitted and show you how to write with fewer fingers. I’m learning that too.”

A shadow of hope crossed Captain Spade’s face.

“Thank you.” He paused. “But what good does that do me when I’m sitting in a prison cell!” His bitterness returned.

“I felt hopeless, too, when I lost my fingers and my leg. I wanted to be a fisherman, just like you,” Ben said.

The policeman who had escorted Ben and Louie beckoned to them.

“Time to go, you two. Jury’ll be returning soon.”

Louie hadn’t had a chance to ask the captain what he meant by his surprise and comment when Uncle Sam told him that his wife had visited Two Tree Island before the shipwreck. I’ll just have to go see him again.

Louie and Ben joined the others who were waiting on benches outside the courtroom. While the jury was still out deliberating, they found a place nearby to eat lunch. They arrived back just in time to hear the bailiff announce, “Court’s about to resume. Take your seats, please.”

Once more the judge banged his gavel for silence.

“Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?”

The foreman of the jury stood. “We have, your honor.”

Louie held his breath.

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“Based on the evidence presented to us, we find the defendant not guilty.”

How could they let him go? Louie was so sure the captain was guilty. He looked over at Abram, who had a stunned look on his face.

Uncle Sam frowned and closed his eyes.

Judge Eagleton asked the defendant to rise.

“You have heard the decision of the jury. Based on the facts presented to them they have found you not guilty. However, the court does not want you to leave town. I suspect that the bank attorney may well file a civil suit against you for nonpayment of the loans you owe them. I remind you also that you have a duty to your son to raise him alone and to show him that you can act as a responsible father. You may go now. Court adjourned.” He banged his gavel.

Captain Spade turned around and tried to hug Abram, but Abram pulled away and headed toward the door. Louie started to go after him, but Ma put her hand on his arm.

“He’s just mixed up—too many emotions. Let him sort them out, Louie.”

Louie watched Ben go over to talk to Captain Spade, who was struggling to get up. Ben helped him steady himself, then walked him to a waiting buggy.

“Let me know where you’re staying, and I’ll come and see you,” Ben called out as the buggy drove off.

“Well, he isn’t staying with us,” Aunt Gertrude announced as she followed Abram and Louie into Uncle Sam’s buggy.

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CHAPTER 13

A Moving Picture Show What

really happened to Momma?” Abram mumbled as he

jumped out of the buggy at his aunt’s house. Louie barely heard him.

He was worried about his new friend.

“And I’d like to know why Jack made up that story about the rogue wave,” Aunt Gertrude added.

“We may never know. All we have now are our suspicions and opinions, and those, according to the jury that just deliberated, are not enough. We’ll just have to see what happens next.”

Uncle Sam picked up the reins.

“What does that mean?” Ma asked him as the horses took off.

“Well, for starters, what will Captain Spade do now? Will he eventually tell someone what really happened to his wife? Will he stop gambling and pay off his debts?”

“Will he marry Evelyn?” Louie added.

“I did see her in court, but she didn’t come to see Captain Spade in the hospital,” Ma said. “You can tell a poisonous snake by its head or a poisonous person by her words and actions.”

In the course of their reflections about the outcome of the trial, the three of them had disembarked from the buggy and were now seated around the kitchen table. Uncle Sam followed Ma’s instructions as to what to retrieve from the cupboard and icebox to fix for their supper.

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“I think we should do something special with Abram,” he said.

Louie and Ma waited for him to continue, but he was deep in thought.

Finally, he said, “There’s something special going on in the city— a moving picture show. How would you, Abram, Charlie, and some of the others from the youth group like to go to see The Great Train Robbery? It’s playing this week and next at the Strand. I just read the review.”

He picked up the local newspaper and read the following advertisement: “A faithful duplication of the genuine ‘Hold Ups’ made famous by various outlaw bands in the far West.”

“Can Louisa come, too?” Louie asked. “She’s on her spring vacation.”

“Then, I’ll have to ask your mother to join us, because you two will need chaperoning.”

Louie blushed. “All the other boys like her, too.”

So, they decided that Louie would ask his friends and then Uncle Sam would purchase the tickets to see the moving picture reel of The Great Train Robbery. Louie made plans to talk to the boys he knew after school at dismissal time, but he wasn’t sure how he could invite Louisa, since her house was too far out of town to walk to it.

“I imagine Louisa probably has a telephone at her house,” Ma suggested. “You could go to the post office tomorrow and use their pay phone to call her.”

Since he had experience using the telephone to call the assistant detective, Louie had more courage this time to talk into the box on the wall that held the speaker. He asked the operator if she had a listing for a Peabody family.

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“I’ll look at my list of phone numbahs under P. Yes. Here it is. Do you want me to ring that numbah for you?” she asked Louie.

“Yes. Please.” Louie could hear the phone ringing at the other end and someone pick up and answer, “Peabody residence.”

Then the operator came back on and told Louie, “You can talk, now.”

“I’m calling to speak to Louisa Peabody. Is she there?”

“Just a moment, please. I’ll go and see.”

Louie held the earpiece next to his ear and waited, hoping it wouldn’t be too long before his money ran out and she answered.

“May I tell her who is calling?” The same voice as before.

Drat! Louie thought. “Louie Hollander,” he answered, “and please hurry before my time runs out.”

“Hello, Louie?” He heard Louisa’s voice and asked her in one quick question whether she would go to see the moving pictures with him and his family.

“Wait, I’ll ask.”

“Ah …” Louie was speechless until the operator came back on the line. “Time is up. Do you wish to put in more coins?”

“Just another minute,” he pleaded. “I don’t seem to have any more coins. Please ask Louisa to call you. I can come to the post office or …”

“I got your message. Time’s up now.” The operator hung up.

Louie made another trip to the post office to call and ask the operator what Louisa had told her about whether or not she could go to the moving picture show.

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The operator said, “Louisa? Oh, you mean the Peabody girl. She told me to tell ye that she can go with ye, yer family, and othah friends to see that picture show.”

Louie called the operator a third time to ask her to please tell Louisa to meet them at the train station Saturday morning. Uncle Sam had decided they’d all take the train into the city to see The Great Train Robbery.

“You be sure and call me agin to tell me all ’bout it so’s I can go to see it.”

In between phone calls, Louie heard back from the many friends he’d invited, telling him who had permission and who did not.

Meanwhile, Uncle Sam purchased tickets for the Saturday matinee, and, while Louie waited for the big day to arrive, Uncle Sam told him the story about a real holdup on the Union Pacific Railroad in 1900 that had inspired the film.

“Must have been scary—being on that train.”

On Saturday they stopped for Charlie and Abram on the way to the train station. The Burke boys were waiting for them when their buggy arrived. But no Louisa.

Louie wondered if something had happened to her. Their train pulled in and a conductor announced, “All aboard.” Louie heard the horn and saw Louisa’s father’s black automobile in the distance.

“Hold the train!” he yelled to the conductor. “We’re waiting for another person in that automobile.”

The conductor looked at his watch on the chain hanging from his vest and went to speak to the engineer. He was returning—still looking at his watch—when Louisa ran toward the train.

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“There she is!” Louie yelled from the top of the steps leading to their passenger car. The conductor finally looked up from his watch at Louisa, who was now standing beside him. He held her elbow and guided her up the steps, pulling the steps up behind him as the train began to move forward out of the station.

“Whew!” Louisa said to Louie. “Papa couldn’t get the car started, and then it stalled on the way over.”

“We’re glad you made it,” Ma said. “Here, we saved a seat for you.” She winked at Louie because the empty seat was beside him.

“We get off at the second stop, so don’t get too comfortable.”

“How is your vacation?” Louie timidly asked.

“OK. I go back to school next week. How’s yours?”

Louie told her about going to the court hearing for Abram’s father. “Abram Spade?” she asked. “You mean the Abram who played Huck Finn?”

Then Louie had to tell her the whole story about Ma getting sick, the shipwreck, and the Lighthouse Service Board hearing. By the time he’d finished they had arrived at their destination.

“How far to the Strand?” Uncle Sam asked the stationmaster.

“Well, ye could walk it, but I’d advise taking that trolley over there. It’d get there faster.”

They pushed their way into a crowded trolley and stood hanging on as it swayed and stuttered its way up and down the hills, finally stopping in front of the Strand Theater. Fortunately, they had some extra time to look around the theater and buy some popcorn and Moxies and read all the posters on the walls. One of the posters read:

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Be one of the first to observe this moving picture: Note these innovative techniques, jump-cuts, parallel editing and location shooting, employed by Edwin Porter, the photographer.

The usher handed them a program which told about the story and how the film was made without sound.

They had to wait half an hour before the show was scheduled to begin. Uncle Sam found some seats where they could all sit together.

Louie read and reread the program. Finally, the curtain parted and Louie watched as the words The Great Train Robbery flashed on a small screen. The projector began whirring, the words disappeared, and a scene came on the screen. Louie sat on the edge of his seat and intently watched the picture that looked like a railroad station office. He could see the image of a train outside the window. Two bandits were pointing their guns at a man who looked like he was writing. Louie read the script on the program in his hand: Take on water at this station and not Red Lodge as planned. Next the action moved to a scene where the bandits held down the man.

Probably the telegraph operator, Louie thought. I think they’re tying his hands behind his back with a rope.

Louie held the program notes out in front of him. His eyes darted back and forth between the action in each of the next thirteen scenes and the spoken words for each scene written down on the program.

He lost track of time, absorbed in all that was happening on the screen. Louisa squealed when one of the bandits pointed his gun right at the audience in the last scene of the moving picture reel.

Then the screen went blank.

Louie couldn’t believe the movie was over in just ten minutes.

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“Can we see it again?” Louisa asked Uncle Sam. “I promise I won’t squeal when the bandit points the gun this next time.”

Uncle Sam looked over at Ma and then back at Louisa.

“Sure. Our return train doesn’t leave until late this afternoon.”

After the second showing of the movie and they were on their way back to the train station, Louisa, Charlie, and the two Burkes walked together. They talked about the marvels of watching pictures move and scenes change. Abram walked behind with Ma and Uncle Sam. “Thomas Edison is one crazy inventor. He invented the electric lightbulb, the telegraph, the typewriter, the phonograph, and now moving pictures on a screen,” Louie exclaimed.

“I wish I were crazy like him!” Billy added.

Ma called to the boys in front, “You sound like a swarm of bees buzzing.”

They were still buzzing like bees when they boarded the train, all except Abram.

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CHAPTER 14

Bad Fathers and Good Fathers Abram just stared out the train window.

When the train pulled away from the station, Charlie moved forward and sat down beside him in the empty aisle seat. “Mind if I sit here?”

“Nope.” Abram looked over in Charlie’s direction then turned back to staring.

“You were great as Jim in Huck Finn,” Charlie said.

“Yeah. Thanks,” Abram said. “But my pa couldn’t care less.”

“I often wished my pa would die and then felt it was my fault that he drowned.”

Abram turned his head toward Charlie, away from the window.

Charlie continued, “I hated him when he beat on ma.”

“My pa didn’t beat Momma, but she used to yell at him when he’d come home from gambling and had lost all his money. He got accused of killing her.”

“I never knew whether or not my pa would kill my ma when he was drunk. I couldn’t trust him.”

“You, too? I can’t trust my pa either. He’s not a good father.”

“Neither was mine. But my brother, Ben, says I need to try and forgive him.”

“If my pa really killed Momma—I’ll never forgive him.” Abram hit his fist on the back of the seat in front of him.

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Uncle Sam, who was seated behind Abram and Charlie, leaned forward and placed his arm around each boy’s shoulder.

“Never say never about forgiving someone. Jesus said we must learn to forgive seventy times seven, but it’s never easy without His help. It will be easier for you, Charlie, because your pa’s now dead.

But it will be harder for Abram, unless his pa can turn his life around.

Judge Eagleton and the jury have given him another chance. Maybe you two could start to think about forgiving your fathers by each of you writing a letter to your own pa. Before you write your letter, think about how you felt about the times when he wasn’t there for you as a father. Then after you’ve written your letter, come and show it to me and we’ll talk about it. Can you each do that?”

Charlie nodded. Abram balled up his fist again and hit the window frame.

Just at that moment a conductor came through their car and announced the next stop.

“That’s us,” Ma said.

“And that’s my father’s automobile. Anyone want a ride?” Louisa said, pointing to the waiting automobile.

“And I’ll take the overflow in my buggy,” Uncle Sam said.

But Louie, Charlie, Abram, and the Burke brothers gathered around the shiny black horseless carriage instead of the buggy.

“I can only take two of you,” Mr. Peabody said. “Which two will it be? Louisa, you choose.”

Louisa chose Louie and Charlie. The other three boys sauntered over to Uncle Sam’s waiting buggy.

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“Thanks, Mr. Peabody,” Louie said. “I’ve never ridden in a horseless carriage before. Can I crank her up?”

Charlie climbed into the automobile and thought about the letter Sam Hornblower wanted him to write while waiting for the engine to start. Mr. Peabody is a good father. I wish my father had been there for me. Uncle Sam has been more like a real father to me than my own.

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CHAPTER 15

Time to Work and Time to Play No school next week.”

The automobile sputtered and spat at Charlie’s announcement.

“Too bad,” Louisa responded. “I have to go back on Monday. My spring break is over.”

“I’m still on vacation,” Louie said as he climbed up beside Charlie.

Mr. Peabody turned on the headlights of his car. Shadows of houses spread across the road as the car drove up the hill from the railroad station to the village square.

“What did you like best about the moving picture?” Louisa’s father asked.

Louisa told him how she hadn’t screamed when the gun was pointed at her the second time. Louie told him how amazing it was that you could see the figures moving from scene to scene on the screen. Charlie said he liked the part where the posse finally caught the bandits.

“Soon there will be one of those moving picture theaters in every town. Got some stock in Edison’s new company,” Mr. Peabody said.

“That man’s a genius—always coming up with another new invention.”

“And maybe electric lights will replace gas ones,” Charlie added as the Peabody automobile passed gas lamps lining the road on its way to take each one of them home.

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Louie wasn’t so sure about electric lights. Their kerosene lamps on Two Tree Island worked just fine and they didn’t have electricity anywhere on the island. He laughed at Charlie’s suggestion.

“Whoa! It takes some of us time just to get used to all these new inventions.”

Mr. Peabody’s automobile stuttered and stopped halfway up the hill. He put on the brake and got out of his seat to try and crank up the engine again. But the automobile wouldn’t start right away.

“Since your house is close enough, guess you’ll have to walk, Charlie.”

“See you tomorrow,” Louie said to Charlie. “We’ll make plans for the week.”

After Charlie had left and the Peabody automobile had finally started again and made it up the hill to Uncle Sam’s house, Louie thanked Mr. Peabody. Then he asked Louisa, “Will you write to me when you get back to school?”

“Where will you be—here or back at your lighthouse?” she answered.

“We’re staying here until Ma is strong enough to go back to lighthouse keeping.”

“Remember,” Louisa said, “you invited me to come and visit you this summer.”

“I remember. Will you write me and tell me when you can come?”

“When can I, Papa?” Louisa asked.

“I’ll check with your momma,” was all he responded.

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With the unanswered question still in the air, the Peabody car lurched forward. Guess I’ll expect her when her parents tell her she can come. At least that horseless buggy didn’t stall this time, Louie thought. Horses just keep trotting when you tell them to giddyap.

Sometimes he thought inventers like Henry Ford and Ransom Olds were crazy to make all those lurching monsters that didn’t go when they were supposed to go.

Charlie and Abram hurried over to Uncle Sam’s house after the church service the next day to plan their week.

“We can hang out here and play games,” Louie said.

“Ma says I have to help the lobstermen paint their buoys and any other odd jobs the fishermen have for me, ’cause we need the money,” Charlie added.

Abram said, “We need the money, too. Can I work with you, Charlie?”

“The railings over at the church need a new paint job, too,” Uncle Sam said to Louie. Then he turned to the others and said, “I think if you work part of the time and play part of the time, that might be a good compromise between work and play.”

“I have an idea for now,” Ma added.

“What?” Louie asked.

“Didn’t you bring your Helma game with you from Two Tree Island, Louie?” Ma asked.

After they’d finished their Sunday meal, Louie got out the game and spread the board out on his bed. He, Charlie, and Abram plopped down and began to play. Scout came around to each side of the bed and put her snout under each boy’s arm.

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“Stop, Scout—that tickles,” Abram said and started laughing.

They finally gave up trying to play the game and started wrestling and jostling with Scout and each other on the floor until Louie heard Ma call from downstairs.

“There’s too much racket up there. Can’t you take some of that energy outside?”

“Let’s go play some Mintonette5 at the YMCA across the street, “Charlie said. “They’ve got a gym set up for basketball and Mintonette.

“Can we take Scout with us?” Louie asked.

“Don’t know whether or not they allow dogs. But we can tie her up outside if they don’t, or one of us can bring her back here,” Charlie answered.

“OK. Let’s go,” Louie said.

The boys put on their coats and crossed the street in front of the church and walked through the square toward a red brick building with a sign that said “YMCA, Where Boys build Christian Character.”

They could hear noise from the large room in the back of the building.

“Go join them,” the receptionist said, pointing toward where the noise was coming from. “There are some kids back there playing ball. Looks like you’re just the three they need to make up teams.

But you’ll have to tie up your dog outside at the hitching post. No pets allowed inside the building.”

Louie went back outside to tie Scout’s leash to a post.

“Be a good girl. I’ll be back soon.”

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He went to join the others. There were just enough players to form two teams. They delegated Charlie to be one captain and Louie, the other.

“What’s our team’s name?” asked one of the boys selected for Louie’s team.

“Let’s call ourselves the Keepers.”

Charlie’s team huddled on what to call their team. “We’re calling our team the Seekers.”

Louie reminded his team, “Keep that ball in play.”

After about an hour of playing, Louie heard someone calling about a dog. He looked over in the voice’s direction to see a policeman leaning against the doorway.

“Who’s the owner of the dog outside?” he asked. “She’s caught with her leash wrapped around a pole and barking.”

Louie’s face reddened and he excused himself from the game.

“Time to quit anyway,” one of the boys said. “Anyone want to come back tomorrow?” A chorus of Yeses” responded.

“Let’s meet back here around four o’clock then.”

Louie untangled Scout.

“Sorry, girl. Let’s get you some supper.” He picked up her leash and said goodbye to Abram and Charlie, who headed off in another direction.

5

A game like volleyball introduced by the YMCA in the late 1800s.

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CHAPTER 16

Father and Son I don’t want him to.”

Abram stood beside Louie with his arms folded across his chest.

They were in the balcony of the church. Louie didn’t respond.

Instead, his paintbrush moved up and down the post on the balcony railing of the church. He’d been painting the balcony railing every morning that week before he joined the others at the YMCA for their daily ball game.

“Don’t want him to do what?” Louie asked without looking up.

“I don’t want him to visit me,” Abram responded.

“Who?” Louie put his paintbrush down and looked over at Abram, who was now sitting beside him.

“Pa. One of the lobstermen who knows him asked me when I was helping Charlie down by the wharf. Pa told him that he wants to come to Aunt Gertrude’s house and talk to me.”

“What did you tell him—the lobsterman, I mean?”

“Nothing. I just shrugged my shoulders and said nothing. He walked away. Then I came here. I can’t decide whether or not I want to see Pa. “Go talk to Sam Hornblower. He’s downstairs.”

“I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

“I’m scared to tell him that I hate my pa for what he did—how he treated Momma.” Abram pulled out a piece of paper. “I wrote down part of it—like he asked us to—but I got stuck.”

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Louie wiped the paintbrush on a rag and put it in a jar filled with turpentine, wiped his hands, and then turned to his friend. “I think he’ll understand. He usually does. You can trust him. He helped me when I needed him, and he helped Charlie and Ben, too. Here, I’ll go with you.”

Abram followed Louie. He only came up to Louie’s shoulders.

Some of the other kids called Abram “shrimp” because he was so short. Louie wondered if it ever bothered him to be called that. But Abram could really keep that ball up in the air when they played Mintonette and he sure was a good actor.

Uncle Sam’s door was open, but Louie knocked anyway.

“Come in. Hi, you two. How’s the painting coming?”

Abram shuffled his feet and rubbed one hand up and down along his overalls. With his other hand, he handed a paper to Sam Hornblower.

“What’s this? Sit down, Abram. You look worried. Tell me about this paper you just gave me.”

Abram sighed. He took a deep breath, then shot out his words like they were coming out of a gun.

“Here’s-what-you-asked-me-to-write-but-I-got-stuck.Pawants-to-come-see-me-and-I-don’t-know-whether-I-even-wanthim-to-come-and-see-me.” He took another breath.

Uncle Sam motioned to Louie. Louie understood that meant he should disappear, so he turned and closed the door behind him and went back to painting the balcony railing. I’ll have two more rails to do and I’ll be done, he thought. Then I can join the others at the YMCA. He finished painting the last railing post just as he heard two people coming up the stairs talking. It was Uncle Sam’s voice. “I’ll be there.

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Just tell me when.” Then, he went back down the stairs after leaving Abram with Louie.

“The Reverend …” Abram began—Louie wasn’t used to hearing Uncle Sam called by that title— “… said he’d be there when my pa came to see me, but that I was to give Pa a time when Aunt Gertrude wouldn’t be in the house. He didn’t think she’d be pleased to have a visit from Pa. He thinks I can get a message to Pa through the fishermen at the wharf, ’cause they’ll probably know where he’s staying. Reverend Hornblower told me I had every right to be angry and that I should continue writing down anything else that made me angry at Pa or that made me not trust him and then tell him or read him what I’ve written.”

While Abram was talking, Louie managed to close the paint can and clean the brush and himself. “Let’s go. Ask Charlie to get a message to your pa. When’s your Aunt Gertrude going to be gone?”

“She goes to her Women’s Guild meetings on Thursday night and her sewing circle on Friday afternoon.”

“Then your pa can come visit you during one of those two times.”

Abram asked Louie to come with Uncle Sam on Friday, the day Captain Spade had picked to come for his visit. Louie was seated in the parlor waiting with Uncle Sam when the captain knocked on the door. When Abram opened the door, Captain Spade stood there twisting his captain’s hat in his hand.

“Glad you asked me to come. I need to explain ….” He hobbled into the room using a cane but stopped and stood still when he saw Louie and Uncle Sam. “What are those two doing here?”

“I asked them to come, Pa, ’cause I didn’t want to see you alone.”

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Captain Spade turned around and hobbled back toward the door, saying, “Louie’s OK, but the other one—he’s the reason I couldn’t come to your play. He’s the one put me in jail! I told them at the jail I didn’t want to see him again.”

“The grand jury had enough evidence to hold you in jail for your trial,” Uncle Sam said. “Please sit down. I don’t bite, and I think your son has some things he wants to explain to you, too.”

Captain Spade sat on the edge of the chair Louie pulled up for him. He continued to turn his cap around while looking at the floor in front of him.

“Pa,” Abram started. His voice was low and he looked down at the paper in his lap. “The reason I asked Reverend Hornblower to come here—well, he helped me be ready to see you again.” Abram read from his paper, “I was disappointed when you didn’t come to see me in Huck Finn. But I’ve been disappointed other times like the times you told me you would come to my ball game or take me fishing with you but didn’t keep your promise. I didn’t think you cared about me or knew I even existed.”

“But …” Captain Spade interrupted.

Uncle Sam spoke up. “Please let him finish, Captain.”

Abram continued, his voice rising. “After the play was over, Louie and Reverend Hornblower came and told me you were in jail and you were being accused of murdering Momma—and just after we’d buried her too. You weren’t even there for that!” Abram choked. “I was really angry and didn’t ever want to see you again.

I’m still angry and I don’t trust you.” His voice was now at a high pitch. He paused to take a breath.

Captain Spade started to talk, but Uncle Sam stopped him.

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“Let Louie say something first, Captain.”

Louie said, “I didn’t get to know you very well when you stayed on Two Tree Island, but I did get to know Abram because we shared a bed, studied and read together. We got to be friends. When I came to visit you in the hospital—the same hospital where Ma was so sick—and Uncle Sam told you that Mrs. Spade had visited Two Tree Island before the shipwreck, you seemed surprised. In fact, you said ‘she couldn’t have’ or something like that. I was suspicious, still am, about how and why your wife died. And then there was Evelyn …”

“Leave her out of this!” Captain Spade sputtered.

“What did happen to Momma? What did you do to her?” Abram was out of his seat now pointing his finger at his father and shaking all over.

“I didn’t do anything. I didn’t kill her.” Captain Spade put up his hands. There was a long pause.

Abram sat back down and glared at his father. “Then how did she die, Pa?” “Your momma was always yelling at me. She never had enough money. So, I went to the gambling tables but lost most of my earnings. She didn’t know until that trip that I had gambling debts and we had to sell the house where we were living. I had used all our savings to pay off my debts. She was very angry when I told her. She screamed and threw anything that was loose in the cabin. I tried to restrain her, but she fell and hit her head. She was still breathing so I lifted her to the bunk, and then I took some turns around the deck to think. I knew then that I shouldn’t have gambled away the very roof over our heads. But I was hooked to gambling and couldn’t stop.

I lay down on the coiled anchor rope in the bow to think. I must have fallen asleep because when I woke up, dawn was breaking. When I 93

returned to the cabin, your momma wasn’t there. I looked around the ship but couldn’t find her. She just disappeared.”

“And you invented the story about the rogue wave,” Uncle Sam said.

Captain Spade hung his head. “I guess so. But I didn’t hit her and I didn’t kill her.”

“But you weren’t there for her, either—just like you weren’t there for your son when he needed you.”

“Maybe not, but Judge Eagleton has given me a chance now to pay off some of my debts and to make it up to Abram. Son, will you”—Captain Spade pleaded with Abram—“give me another chance?”

“I’m not sure, Pa. Maybe in time I can forgive you enough to trust you. I guess it depends …”

“Depends on whether or not you can accept help in turning your life around,” Uncle Sam continued answering for Abram. “Others have. God gives second chances. Don’t leave it all up to Abram. He’s been hurt enough.”

Abram turned his head away.

“Sorry, son.” Captain Spade got up and headed for the door. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“Do you believe him?” Louie asked Uncle Sam on the way back to his house.

“We pray. God does the rest.”

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CHAPTER 17

Surprises What next? Louie thought.

The end of school vacation week had arrived. The Keepers and the Seekers decided to finish their weeklong tournament.

“Congratulations, great tournament!” Charlie said as he and his teammates ducked under the net to congratulate the Keepers on their victory.

“Next time,” he said to Louie, “we want Abram on our team.”

On Monday all his new friends would be going back to school and Louie would have to hang out with just Scout. Louie felt alone for the first time all week. But I was alone most of the time on Two Tree Island with just Scout, so what’s wrong with me? He tried to talk himself into being happy about it, but he couldn’t. And Ma said I’d have to wait to the end of the week to be surprised. Maybe her surprise will make me feel better. Despair weighed him down so that his feet dragged with each step he took toward home.

“See ye tomorrow!” Charlie said as he parted from Louie halfway across the village square.

“What?” Louie looked up. He couldn’t remember any plans they had made to get together tomorrow.

“I mean Sunday at church and youth group,” Charlie stammered.

Ma had told him last night that she was taking him shopping for new clothes on Saturday. Getting new clothes wasn’t all that bad, but it didn’t seem like much fun. And being seen shopping with your mother, ugh! He hoped they wouldn’t run into anyone else he knew.

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“When do we go?” he asked her Saturday morning at breakfast.

“Go where?” Ma answered.

“Shopping.”

“Oh, I’m not going.… Sam’s taking you. He’s gone to hitch the horse to the buggy. Said he’d wait for you outside.”

Better to be seen with him than with her, Louie thought as he put on his coat and headed for the door.

Louie climbed up into the open buggy and sat down beside Uncle Sam. They rode through the countryside in silence down hills and up again into the next big town. Redbrick buildings seemed to run into each other on either side of the street. Each had a billboard or placard over the door stating what the business establishment sold.

Uncle Sam hitched up their horse at a store marked “Gentlemen’s Emporium.”

“I need a suit of clothes for this growing gentleman,” Uncle Sam said, grinning at the proprietor who opened the door and bowed to them after Uncle Sam pulled the bell.

“Mr. Devonshire at your service. Please do come in.”

Louie followed Uncle Sam into the shop.

“Here, sirs, is just the outfit for this young man. The knee pants with this jacket and blouse …”

“I want long pants—not those knickers. I don’t want to look like a little kid,” Louie interrupted.

“How old are you, son?”

Oh no, Louie thought. One more person calling me son. Doesn’t anyone care that next week is my birthday! Louie squared his 96

shoulders, planted both feet on the floor of the shop, and looked the proprietor right in the eyes.

“Fourteen—this coming week.”

Then suddenly it dawned on him. So that’s the reason for the shopping expedition. OK. I understand now.

“Could I try those pants instead?” he asked Uncle Sam. “Sure. I don’t much care for knickers either.”

After trying on several outfits, Louie selected one set of pants with a jacket, a Buster Brown high-collared shirt, and a bow tie.

Uncle Sam paid for them and they left the store.

“Thanks. This isn’t my birthday present from Ma, by the way, is it? She usually goes with me to buy my clothes.”

“Your birthday?” Uncle Sam said. “Well, I guess it must be, since this was your mother’s idea. But I have another present in mind.”

Just as he finished the sentence, he pulled the horse over to another storefront. Louie read the overhead sign: “Bay Bicycle Shop.” Again, Uncle Sam pulled the bell cord and another proprietor invited the two of them inside. Louie couldn’t believe his eyes, so many different kinds of bicycles were lined up in rows all around the shop—three wheelers and two wheelers and four wheelers with two seats.

“Wow,” he exclaimed. He had never thought he’d ever own a bicycle.

When he suggested buying one to Ma, she said that a bicycle was not in their budget. “Besides,” she said, “you can’t ride a bicycle around a rocky island.”

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He turned to Uncle Sam, who was standing grinning beside him, to protest, “But I don’t need a bicycle when I’m manning a lighthouse.”

“Think how much faster you can move on a bicycle when you want to go to a friend’s house or even just to the store or to the park when you’re visiting me. Pick one you like.”

Louie went from one style of bicycle to another, trying them on for size. He thought the tricycles with the big front wheel would be fun to ride, but the ones with two wheels the same size would be easier to ride.

“Can I try riding this one?” he asked the proprietor, pointing to a red one at the end of one of the rows. The proprietor nodded and said, “You can try it out back in the alleyway.”

Even though the bicycle wobbled under him and Louie had to put his feet down to stop, he knew he could master riding it around town.

“We’ll take it,” Uncle Sam said.

Louie helped Uncle Sam tie his new bicycle to the back of the buggy.

They ate their lunch at a nearby eatery. Back in the buggy, Louie, still doubting the bicycle tied on the back was his, said, “I bet Ma will make me return it.”

“Let’s see what she says when we show it to her,” Uncle Sam said as the horse turned toward his house next to the church. Louie half carried, half pulled the bicycle up the steps. Ma opened the door when he pulled the bell.

“Look, Ma …” he started to say.

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“Surprise!”

Out from doorways and from behind Ma jumped all his new friends. “Happy Birthday!” they shouted.

Louie stared wide-eyed. He opened his mouth to say something and then closed it. His friends surrounded him, slapping him on the back, then oohing and aahing over the bicycle he’d managed to get halfway into the door.

“That yours?” asked Charlie.

“Let’s ride,” another said. The kids who had parked their own bicycles behind the house went around the back to get them. They took turns riding each other’s bicycles until it was time to eat the birthday supper Ma had prepared for all of them.

Louie wished he’d had the lighthouse log book to write about his special surprise party that night. Instead, he started a story in the new journal Abram had given him as a present: “My Best Birthday Ever.”

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CHAPTER 18

Special Surprise Another something special?” Louie asked. “My surprise birthday party, my bicycle, and my new clothes—weren’t they enough?”

Ma had said she and Uncle Sam had something special for him the night of his actual birthday. They’d celebrated with his favorite steak dinner—a meal he never had on Two Tree Island. Betsy, their cow, only produced milk, not beef. Too many good things happening all at once, he thought. He couldn’t imagine what special present they had for him now.

“Go on into the parlor with Uncle Sam while I clean up the dishes,” she said. “I’ll join you later.”

So Louie followed Uncle Sam into the parlor.

“Your mother says I need to ask your permission before she can agree—since you’re a team.”

Since when? Louie thought. He was the one who always needed to ask permission to do anything.

“I’ve asked your mother to marry me, if she’ll have me. She says I need to ask you first if you’ll have me as your father.”

Louie couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All kinds of thoughts raced around inside his head. Uncle Sam—his father? Hadn’t he been there for both of them when they needed him after Pa died? Didn’t he act like a real pa? But his real pa had only died a year ago, and he had missed him so long—but not as much lately. Ma said she was lonely. He felt comfortable around Uncle Sam like around his own pa—sort of—in a different way.

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“Then I couldn’t call you Uncle anymore—or Reverend—you’d be—what would I call you?” he asked out loud.

Uncle Sam laughed. “Whatever you want. It doesn’t matter as long as we can all be together. I find I can’t live without either of you.”

Louie threw his arms around his new father-to-be.

“What a birthday!”

Just then Ma came in the parlor and joined in the hug. “Then we’re a team of three,” she said, laughing.

“What about our lighthouse job? Is Uncle Sam going to help us tend it?” Louie asked.

“We talked that over,” Ma said. “Because of Sam—I mean Uncle Sam or I mean our Sam’s responsibilities as the pastor of the church next door, we can’t ask him to give that up. And I don’t like giving up lighthouse keeping because that’s what I’ve always known.”

“But I have some concerns about your mother’s health and what happens when big storms come up and you get isolated on the island. I’d be worried about you so much of the time.”

“Then there’s your schooling, Louie,” Ma continued. “We’ve watched how happy you’ve been here and how many friends you’ve made. Being alone on the island during the winter when you couldn’t see them is not much fun for you.”

“But I like lighthouse keeping and it’s not always lonely.”

Remembering what he’d thought earlier, only sometimes lonely.

“There’s too much to do. I’d get bored here when all the other kids are in school.”

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“That’s just it. All the others do go to school and do enjoy each other’s company even when they’re not in school. And you can’t take your new bicycle to the island.”

“Your mother and I have decided—with your permission of course—that the two of you would spend the school year here in this town with me. When summer comes, I have my summer job as Sunday visiting preacher. During the week I visit folks on the islands with Captain Bowline in Rainbow. I’d be able to live with you and be part of the team of relief-keepers at Two Tree Island Light. Of course, we’d have to work it out with Aussie, Harry, and Mr. McAllister.”

“Harry wants to go back to fishing in the spring and summer, and Aussie doesn’t like being a lighthouse keeper all year round,” Louie added. “Could I also invite my friends to come and visit like before?”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Ma replied. “In fact, I’m surprised we haven’t yet heard from Harry that he needs to go back to being a fishing crewmember instead of a lighthouse keeper. So, your father—father-to-be, that is—and I decided that after Easter we’d go back to Two Tree Island.”

“And your mother and I would get married.”

“Here? On the island? Or where?” Louie asked.

“Well, we had hoped to be married on the island, weather permitting, of course.”

They all laughed.

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CHAPTER 19

Visiting Tidewater School I’ve talked to the principal,” Ma said. “You can attend Tidewater School for two weeks until we return to the island for the wedding.

If you’re behind in any subjects, you can catch up while you’re staying with Aussie until we return from …”

Louie interrupted. “Return? Where are you going?” Was his new father going to take his mother away from him? Now I’m not so sure I like the idea of the two of them getting married.

“It is usual for a couple to go away on a honeymoon somewhere after they get married—to get to know each other,” Uncle Sam said.

“But you do know each other,” Louie complained.

“It will only be for a short time, Louie,” Ma added. “Then we’ll come back to Two Tree Island to fetch you, and the three of us will go back to Rockvalle. We’ll first have to see if Aussie will agree to manage the lighthouse on his own for a month or so until school lets out for the summer. Then we will return to live at Two Tree Island for the summer months.”

Louie lay in bed with Scout lying at his feet, trying to sort it all out—the past year and the anticipated future. He listened to the night sounds, the clock ticking, and Scout snoring. Last year at this time he was mourning the loss of his real father. They had no money, no home, and Ma said she had to get a job. She couldn’t even afford to buy him any new clothes. He was embarrassed wearing his too-tight knickers and his father’s remade old pants. Now he had new clothes, a new bike, new friends, a new school, as well as the prospect of a new father and a whole new way of life. He guessed he should thank God for 105

all of these blessings that had suddenly been given to him. But in many ways he’d miss the old way of life he’d always known: the sounds of the fog siren, the light from the beacon careening across his bed, the solitude when he could think and imagine, and the proud feeling of being the man in the family, of the responsibility of taking care of Ma when she was sick—or at least trying to take care of her. Sometimes he still felt guilty about falling asleep and letting the beacon light go out. But he wouldn’t have to give up being a lighthouse keeper—at least not completely. And with these thoughts racing through his mind, he slowly slipped into dreamland.

“Louie, rise and shine. This is your first day attending Tidewater School.”

Louie opened his eyes, looked at Ma, groaned, and then pulled the quilt over his head. Ma pulled the quilt off. Scout jumped out of bed, shook herself, and moved around to the side of the bed to lick Louie’s face.

“OK, you two. I get it. Time to wake me up.”

“Here. I bought a lock for your bike so you can ride it to school,” Uncle Sam said at breakfast.

Louie thought about the option of riding to school on his new bicycle. I might fall off and be embarrassed in front of all the other kids.

Then I’d arrive for my first day at Tidewater with my clothes all muddy.

“I think I’ll walk today,” he said through a mouthful of oatmeal.

“Then here’s your lunch box.” Ma put a box with a strap in front of Louie. He grabbed his jacket and cap, pulled the strap over his shoulder, and headed out the door with Scout at his heels.

“No, Scout.” Louie patted her on the head. “Sit. Stay.” Scout hung her head to one side.

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“Ma. Take care of her for me, will you?” Louie lingered in the doorway. Ma came over, squatted beside Scout, and held her collar.

“She’ll be all right. Just go.”

Louie met the Burke boys coming across the park.

“Hey, Louie,” Dan said. “What brings you this way? And where’s your dog?”

“This is my first day at Tidewater.”

“No kiddin’,” Billy said. “Thought you were going back to that lighthouse. What grade are you in?”

“Don’t know,” Louie answered. “But I finished my eighth grade examinations.”

“Did you bring them with you?” Dan asked. “Teachah will want to see them.”

“Drat.” Louie stopped in his tracks. He remembered he had left his exam papers back on Two Tree Island on his bed in the loft.

“No,” he answered.

“Well, come on. Don’t just stand there. We’ll be late,” Dan said.

The three boys arrived at the two-story gray building just as the principal was pulling the bell rope. Boys and girls of all sizes and shapes were converging toward the steps leading up to the front door.

“Hey, Louie. That’s the first bell—just a warning. When he rings the second one we need to be in our seats,” Abram said as he came up beside Louie. “Follow me.”

Inside the building there was a hallway with a door on each side and stairs straight ahead.

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“This floor is for the first six grades, first through third on one side; fourth through sixth on the other. We’re upstairs.”

Louie followed Abram up the stairs. There were three rooms on the second floor. Louie followed Abram and Charlie into the room on the right.

“This is ours,” Charlie said. “It’s the biggest room on this floor.

Our principal, Mr. Lewis, has his office at the end of the hall. It’s the smallest. The older kids are across the hall. There’re not as many in their class because most kids around here stop schooling after the eighth grade. Ben wants to finish his last year of schooling so he has a tutor because he can’t make it up these stairs yet with his peg leg.”

Louie heard the bell ring again. All the boys and girls in the room scrambled for their seats and folded their hands. Some had hung up their jackets and caps on hooks along the wall with their lunch boxes. Others didn’t bother and threw them under their desks. Louie stood in the front of the room and looked around him. A woman who was sitting at a desk stood up and came over to Louie.

“You must be our new student Mr. Lewis was telling me about.

My name is Miss Stanley. Class, please all rise and welcome Louie Hollander.”

Each student got up and came over to shake Louie’s hand and then went back to his or her seat. The ones who still had their jackets and coats on hung them up first. Miss Stanley showed Louie to an empty seat at the end of the second row. It was next to a girl who had introduced herself as Patty.

“Patty,” Miss Stanley addressed her, “will you share your textbooks with Louie for today until we can find ones for him?”

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Patty nodded her head toward Louie’s seat. She shook her red curls so that they flew back and forth across her face and batted her eyelashes at him. Louie slid down in his seat. He turned his eyes away from Patty and focused them instead on the inkwell on the corner of his desk.

“Now, boys and girls, please rise and face the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance.”

After the Pledge of Allegiance, Miss Stanley asked the class to find the place in Wentworth’s Geometry book where they had stopped before the spring recess.

“Louie, will you come forward, please?” Louie rose from his seat and went to stand before the teacher.

“Do you have any records with you from your former school?” she asked.

Louie cleared his throat. “Ma’am, you see, I’ve been island schooled.”

He explained to Miss Stanley that Miss Gilbert, a retired teacher, had come to their island and brought books from the Ladies Auxiliary. He explained that she had sent his assignments by mail and that, under Ma or Aussie’s supervision, he had completed his lessons and returned them to her through Gus, who ran the mail boat. He also told her that he had passed all the examinations she had sent with As and Bs but that he had left those papers on his bed in his loft bedroom on the island.

“Did you bring any of your textbooks with you?” she asked.

Louie shuffled his feet and shook his head. He’d left those also at Two Tree Island because he didn’t think he’d need them as he was supposed to be having a break from studies.

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“Well, we’ll wait and see how you keep up with the rest of the class. If you don’t understand something, please come and talk to me.”

Miss Stanley excused him and Louie went back to his seat.

Even though Louie was in a new school, the routine was familiar, since he’d been attending the local school at Swanton Point before his pa was killed falling down the lighthouse tower steps in that winter storm. He found as he went through that first day of classes that, although some of the textbooks were new to him, the subject matter was easy to follow, especially in English composition.

Geometry was the only subject that he didn’t understand, but arithmetic had never been his best subject.

After school Abram asked if he could walk home with him.

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CHAPTER 20

Suspecting Trouble How is it between you and your pa?” Louie asked Abram as he shouldered his empty lunch box and books.

Miss Stanley found an extra Wentworth Geometry book in the storage room and gave it to Louie to take home to study along with some others. Louie was bursting to tell someone his good news that Uncle Sam was going to be his new father but didn’t want to rub it in. If he had a bad father like Abram’s, he wasn’t sure he would want to hear about his good news. As long as Captain Spade was around, Abram had to be resigned or reconciled to him as a father.

“Not good,” Abram answered. “Haven’t seen him. But Charlie and Ben have been to see him a couple of times. Says Ben’s helpin’ him learn to use his prosthesis. He’s livin’ with another fishin’ captain down by the wharf and workin’ part time at the canning factory.”

“You mean the same factory Evelyn’s father owns?”

“Yeah, the same. Ben says she comes to the factory, and he’s seen her talkin’ to Papa.” Abram kicked a stone on the road.

“Has he come back to see you again?” Louie asked.

“Aunt Gertrude won’t let him in her house.”

Louie knew that Abram didn’t like Evelyn. Louie didn’t like her either, but he didn’t want to rub salt into a fresh wound—it would hurt too much.

“Does it help to pray for him?”

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“Don’t know. Reverend Hornblower says it will—help me anyway—to forgive him. But I still don’t trust Pa’s story about what happened to Momma.”

“Oh,” was all Louie could say, since he didn’t believe the story either.

The thought still nagged in his head that Captain Spade would marry Evelyn just to get her money so he could pay off his debts and not have to go back to jail.

“Give him space and time, Reverend Hornblower said.”

Louie was dying to tell Abram that the Reverend Hornblower would soon be his father. Then, will I have him all to myself or will I have to share him with Abram, Charlie, Ben, and the other members of the youth group? Louie already knew the answer to his own doubt.

Uncle Sam had told him that a pastor of a congregation has to share God’s love with everyone, even if he might not like some of them.

Still, he hoped that he would be able to have some special times with his new father.

Just as they were nearing the corner where they would have to part ways, Louie to Uncle Sam’s house and Abram to his, Charlie appeared.

“Hi. Want to come down to the wharf with me? I still have some painting of buoys to do fer the lobstermen.”

“Think I best get back to the house and get Ma to help me with geometry,” Louie answered.

“What about you, Abram?”

“Sure. Why not? Aunt Gertrude is probably out anyways, and I don’t got nothin’ scheduled to do nohow.”

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Louie had never heard Abram sound so bitter. He hesitated before heading toward the church and Uncle Sam’s house. Should I go with them? What if they get into trouble? He remembered the trouble Charlie had gotten himself into on Two Tree Island when his father was still alive. Maybe I should talk to Uncle Sam. He stopped at the house first to leave his lunch box and books before going over to the church.

“How did it go, Louie?” Ma asked.

“OK, I guess. Only I didn’t have either my exam papers or my schoolbooks with me—left them at Two Tree Island.”

“Maybe there is enough time for Aussie and Harry to send them via Gus’s mail service.”

“That’s OK, Ma. They can wait where I left them. Where’s Uncle Sam?” “He’s either in his church office writing his sermon or making calls in the buggy. Why don’t you see if the buggy is still out front?”

Louie looked but didn’t see the buggy, so he had to wait until Uncle Sam came home to talk to him about Abram.

“Do you want to tell me about it, Louie?” Ma asked.

“Just want to see if Abram and Charlie are still down at the wharf.

They might get into trouble.”

“You can’t stop them from getting into trouble, Louie. You don’t have to join them either.”

But Louie was deep in his own thoughts about his two friends and didn’t really hear Ma. Even though Charlie seemed to be turning his life around and hadn’t gotten into trouble recently, that didn’t mean that with Abram just losing his mother and having a father who was a 113

scoundrel, the two of them couldn’t get into trouble. Then he remembered his new bicycle.

“Think I’ll ride down to the wharf.”

“Why not take Scout and walk down. It’s all downhill and you’re not too sure about your balance on the bicycle yet. I’ll ask Sam to pick you up when he gets home.”

So, Louie agreed and started out across the town square and down the hill toward the wharf. Scout pulled at her leash so that Louie practically had to run to keep up with her. He was out of breath when he reached Charlie’s house halfway down the hill. Thinking that maybe Charlie stopped here with Abram instead of going all the way down the hill, Louie went up to the door and knocked. Ben opened the door.

“Hi, Louie,” he said. “What’s up?”

“I’m looking for Charlie and Abram. Are they here?”

“Just came from them after seeing Captain Spade. Told Abram his pa said he’d come see him here at our house after school tomorrow. Captain seemed kind of nervous-like.”

“They weren’t in any trouble, were they?” Louie asked.

“Well …” He paused. “Naw—just paintin’ them buoys together.”

Louie was relieved and turned around to leave.

“Don’t you worry so much, Louie. Leave it to God. Abram will be OK.” Louie turned and walked back up the hill with Scout, feeling rather foolish. When he got back home, Uncle Sam was in the kitchen talking to Ma. But Louie didn’t stop to talk to them. Instead, 114

he went upstairs with Scout trailing behind him to look at the geometry book Miss Stanley had given to him.

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CHAPTER 21

Easter Sunday Welcome, happy morning …”

The words of this new Easter hymn rang up to the rafters. Louie sat in the front pew with Ma. He wore the new suit he had gotten for his birthday.

“Don’t get that suit dirty, Louie. You need to wear it to our wedding,” Ma had warned him before the service.

“And you don’t have to wear another silly hat!” he had told her.

Besides the silly hat, she had on a new dress and gloves. Uncle Sam had insisted she go shopping too.

During the service Louie’s mind wandered, thinking about the wedding that would take place next Saturday on Two Tree Island, weather permitting. If the weather should take a turn for the worse, their plan was to hold the wedding ceremony in Uncle Sam’s summer church. Louie watched his father-to-be stand in front of the congregation in his Easter robes and thought, Why do preachers like to wear those silly robes anyway?

The choir came down the aisles and then climbed up the stairs to take their places by the organ in the balcony, where Louie had painted the railing. He looked up to admire his handiwork as the choir members sat down.

Reverend Hornblower reminded the congregation what Easter means in the life of the church: “The Resurrection is all about God’s grace. Jesus has risen from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God. He continues to 117

intercede for us when our behavior falls short of what He expects of us.”

Louie thought of the time Charlie had first come to visit him at Two Tree Island and he had smoked the cigarette Charlie had offered him. He recalled the horrible taste of it and how it made him sick.

He remembered when Charlie shot his rifle at a bird, missed, and nicked Louie’s shoulder. But Charlie was different now. Louie looked across the aisle where the whole Missen family sat in the pew opposite him. He noticed two familiar figures sitting in the pew behind the Missens: Abram and his father, Captain Spade! He nudged Ma. “Look who’s here,” he whispered. Ma looked across the aisle and smiled.

“I know,” she whispered back to Louie.

During the announcement time, Reverend Hornblower motioned to Louie and Ma to come forward. He put one arm around Ma and his other arm around Louie.

“I want you to meet my new family. This is Molly Hollander and her son, Louie. It is a powerful testament to God’s grace that they have both agreed to be my family. Molly and I will be married next Saturday on Two Tree Island, where these two have been lighthouse keepers. We invite any of you who are able to come by train and by boat to attend our wedding. After the wedding and our honeymoon, Mrs. Hornblower and Louie, who has become like a son to me and soon will be my adopted son, will be returning to live with me here in Rockvalle. Louie will be attending Tidewater School until summer. I will be joining them as the third lighthouse keeper on their team to help tend the lighthouse on Two Tree Island during the summer months.”

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The congregation stood, cheered, and clapped. The choir sang the last Alleluia and, after the service, each member of the congregation came forward to offer congratulations and best wishes.

“Don’t forget, you’re coming to our home for Easter dinner,” Mr. Peabody said as he shook their hands. Louie had written to Louisa to tell her about the upcoming wedding and to remind her that she could still come to visit them on the island during the summer.

Louisa had telephoned her father to tell him the news. Mrs. Peabody then came to see Ma and invited all of them for Easter dinner.

“We’re coming too,” Charlie told him on the way out, “and so is Abram. Even Abram’s pa and his aunt, as well as all the kids in the youth group who went with us to the moving pictures, have been invited. I don’t know how many others Mrs. Peabody has invited. See ye later. Here’s cross hand’n ye.”

At last, Louie was able to get away from all the hand shakers and back slappers to take Scout for a walk before they left for the Peabody home.

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CHAPTER 22

The Peabody Party Two automobiles!” exclaimed Louie as their buggy pulled into the Peabody circular driveway.

Although he’d been to Louisa’s house before, it had usually been after dark. Louie gawked first at the shiny black automobiles and then at the house. It spread like a huge eagle over the top of a hill.

Louie caught a glimpse of a manicured lawn leading down the hill toward the ocean. Ma knocked on the front door, and a butler showed them into a large parlor where Louie saw all his new friends and their parents. Mrs. Peabody rustled over to greet them.

“Do come in. Our maid will take your wraps upstairs. Since my husband, Charles, and I are unable to attend your wedding because he has to go away on a business trip, it was Louisa’s idea to have a special pre-wedding banquet in your honor. We’re so thrilled,” she said, holding on to Ma’s hand, “you’ll be living he’ah in our community with this wonderful preacher.”

Gushy, mushy, Louie thought and felt sorry for Louisa. No wonder she goes away to school. I’d have a hard time living with her.

Heavy Victorian furniture crowded the parlor, so when the adults were seated, there were no seats left for Louie and his friends. They went with Louisa into a room she called the sunroom.

“This is my favorite room,” she said. “It’s not as stuffy as the others. We have our phonograph here and you can see the ocean through the windows. Want to hear some of my favorite ragtime tunes?”

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Louisa played the cylinders as the others gathered around to listen to the songs.

“Come, children,” Mrs. Peabody said. “We’re about to start the Easter egg hunt on the lawn.”

I’m not a child anymore, thought Louie. But he saw that there were some younger children at the party, so he thought maybe he could help them hunt for their eggs.

“It’s our tradition,” Louisa whispered in his ear. “Mother doesn’t know that we’re too old for Easter egg hunts. So, I make sure we invite some younger children. Then, I pretend to enjoy it.”

If she can pretend to enjoy it, I can too, Louie thought.

After the Easter egg hunt, dinner was announced. Louie had never seen such elaborate table settings. Two china plates and two crystal goblets were set at each place on the table. He wasn’t sure how he should behave.

“We’re over there at that table.” Louisa pointed to another smaller table set up on one side of the large dining room. A maid came around to each place serving different kinds of foods. During the dessert course, adults stood up to give a toast to Ma and Uncle Sam. Mr. Peabody gave the first toast and—when it seemed like no one else wanted to speak—he gave another.

“Reverend.” He turned toward Uncle Sam. “You have meant so much to this community and to all of us who live here. Even though my wife and I only live here part of the year, you have made us feel welcome, and when any one of us is in trouble or sick, you are available for us. We want to give you something special as a wedding present, something that would make your travels around our 122

community a little easier and faster. You may have seen the gift as you came up our driveway. It is waiting for you outside.”

A collective gasp went up from his guests. Louie wondered what he meant—then he remembered two black automobiles in the driveway. No, it can’t be.

“It’s one of Ransom Olds’ automobiles all the way from Detroit.

Mr. Olds brought it here himself as a model car. He has asked me to set up a car dealership here in Rockvalle. I wondered who could show townsfolk this automobile and interest them in buying one from me.

Immediately you came to my mind, Reverend. You’re always going somewhere to see someone in your horse and buggy. So, I decided you should give your horse a rest and have this horseless buggy for your travels around town. I hope it works better than mine.” Some guests chuckled. “It’s out in the driveway waiting for you.”

The guests followed Uncle Sam and Ma outside to watch as they climbed in the black car with the raised fenders. Louie ran to get his Brownie camera he’d left in their buggy.

“Don’t start it yet!” he said as he snapped the two of them seated in the red bucket seat of the shiny black car.

“Wait for me!” Louie climbed onto the running board and crowded into the seat beside Ma. He reached over and honked the horn.

Just then it started to rain. Mr. Peabody went back behind his house and brought out a black hood. “Here’s what you use on days like this.” He fastened the posts into place on each side of the car.

Since the hood wasn’t very big, as soon as it began to rain harder, everyone went into the house, including Louie, Ma, and Uncle Sam.

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“Thank you,” Uncle Sam said, shaking Mr. Peabody’s hand. “Now I have something to ride in to show off my bride on our honeymoon.”

He grinned at Louie’s mother.

Mr. Peabody laughed. “It only goes five miles per hour, so I hope you don’t plan on going very far away from here.”

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CHAPTER 23

Home Where is my home?

Louie stared out the train window, searching for an answer to his random thoughts as Rockvalle receded into the distance. I’m not sure where my home is anymore. I’m going back to Two Tree Island where Ma and I lived for almost a year. Before that our home was on Swanton Point. Now our home will be in Rockvalle.

Louie had asked Uncle Sam if he could ride with him in his new automobile when he left the Monday after Easter. However, Ma suggested that Louie ride with her on the train and Scout ride with Uncle Sam in the automobile instead.

“Don’t you think she would enjoy that more than being cooped up in a cage in a baggage car?” she had asked Louie.

Louie had to agree. So, reluctantly, Louie boarded the train with Ma, their luggage, and boxes containing whatever Ma would need for a wedding on an island.

Louie wasn’t sure he wanted to go back to Two Tree Island to live, even for a short time. He’d gotten used to his exciting new life in Rockvalle. Ma had telegrammed Captain Bowline and Mr. McAllister to invite them to their April ninth wedding on the island. She had written to Captain Bowline telling him when to expect their return so he could take them out to the island. She had also issued an open invitation for anyone in town to come out to the island for their wedding.

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Mrs. Bowline had telegrammed back and had offered to bake a wedding cake and help with refreshments for guests after the wedding ceremony. “Weather permitting, of course,” she had added.

Mr. McAllister had telegrammed back to ask if they still planned to continue as lighthouse keepers.

When all the telegrams had been sent and received, Ma and Louie were ready to board the train.

“We’ll go see Mr. McAllister as soon as we arrive,” Ma told Louie.

So, she asked the driver who picked them up at the train station to stop at the Lighthouse Service Board office. Louie noted that the wording on the sign in front of the building had been changed. It now read, “Department of Commerce, Lighthouse Superintendent.”

Louie remembered the first time he had gone with Ma to apply for the job. Ma’s feathered hat had made Mr. McAllister sneeze, and he’d had to hide it behind his back and carry her red cape all the way back to the boarding house where they were staying. He hadn’t liked Mr. McAllister then because as superintendent he really didn’t want to hire Ma and he had called him son. Yet, Louie grew to like him somewhat better as the year went on, even though he had this nagging feeling that Mr. McAllister was only being nice to him because he liked Ma. I’m glad she didn’t decide to marry him, he thought as they knocked on the door.

“Come on in.” Louie recognized Mr. McAllister’s voice.

“Welcome back, Molly. We’ve all missed you. Harry’s been asking when you were returning because he wants relief so he can get back to fishing. You are returning, aren’t you—after your wedding, I mean?” He ignored Louie.

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“We came to ask you if Louie could relieve Harry while Sam and I are on our honeymoon,” Ma said.

“Sounds like a workable plan. Then, you’ll be coming back to your job after that?”

“Well—not exactly.” Ma paused. “What we’d like to do is fill in for Aussie during the summer months. We’d like Louie to be able to attend school in Rockvalle during the school season and so that I can be with Sam Hornblower. Then Sam will stay with us on Two Tree Island during the summer months to help tend the light when he’s not visiting islanders or preaching here in town.”

Mr. McAllister sat back in his chair. He took off his cap, pulled on his mustache, and stroked his bald head. Louie put his hand over his mouth to keep from giggling.

“Hmm,” Mr. McAllister finally said. “I’ll have to ask Harry if he’ll come back next fall, and Aussie if he’ll become permanent keeper.

Hate to get someone else new out there. But I think it’s a workable plan.” He got up out of his chair and came around his desk to shake Molly’s hand.

“I want to thank you both”—Now he includes me, Louie thought as Mr. McAllister turned to Louie to shake his hand—“for your lighthouse teamwork during the past year. It sure has been an eventful year! Put both the town and Two Tree Island Light on the map. Expect lots of townsfolk will be coming out for the wedding too. Captain Bowline thinks he’ll be running a taxi service out there.”

“If the weather turns bad, the wedding will be in the summer chapel here,” Ma said. “Now, we must be going to the Bowlines’ house to see if Sam has arrived. Captain Bowline’s ready to take 127

Louie and me back to the island to get ready for our wedding. See you on Saturday. It’s only two days away.”

When the buggy stopped at the Bowlines’ house, Louie saw that their new automobile was already there and Scout was in the yard playing with the other dogs.

“How’d you like riding in the automobile like a queen?” Louie asked Scout when she rushed over and jumped up on him. “Down, girl!” Louie commanded when he saw how dirty she was. “You need a bath.”

Uncle Sam came out of the Bowlines’ house when he heard their voices. He, too, had mud splattered all over his coat and he looked tired.

“We beat you, but not by much. Our horseless carriage needed a few horses pulling it to make it go faster. But we’re here, and so are you.” He kissed Ma and hugged them both.

“Tommy is waiting inside to see you,” he said to Louie.

“And we need to talk about refreshments,” Mrs. Bowline said, coming out of her house and taking Ma’s arm.

“Some buggy ye got there,” said Captain Bowline, walking all around the Olds auto.

“Can I keep it here so Molly and I can take it on our honeymoon?”

“Ef’n ye’ll teach me to drive it.”

“I can do that while I’m staying here before the wedding. Have to drive it to go and meet Bishop Williams, though. He’s marrying us.”

“And we’ll need to get out to Two Tree Island,” Ma said over her shoulder as she and Louie went inside the Bowlines’ house.

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“Then I’ll take ye over to the island in an hour. Need to be back here ’afore dark.”

An hour later Ma, Uncle Sam, and Louie, with Captain Bowline’s help, had unloaded their boxes and valises from the wagon and loaded them onto Rainbow. With no fog and very little wind to impede their journey to Two Tree Island, their boat crossed Windlass Bay in record time.

“Drop anchor on the leeward side,” Captain Bowline commanded Louie as he steered Rainbow around rocks to the other side of the island. “I see Aussie lowering the dory to come and fetch you and all your luggage and boxes. Could nevah manage all of these from the wharf side.”

Scout jumped into the dory before Louie could stop her. He held on to Ma’s hand as she climbed into the middle of the dory and gave Aussie some of their valises and boxes to place in the bow.

“Come back for me and the rest,” he hollered at Aussie, who had started rowing in toward the slip. Harry was waiting to hoist the dory up the ramp.

“How was your month here? Any bad weather?” Louie asked Aussie when his turn came to be rowed into the slip with the rest of their provisions.

“Nothin’ special happened, laddie, whilst you was gone. You brought the best news back with you. We’ve got the house and tower all spruced up for the big event Saturday. Hope the weather holds.”

Louie hoped so too.

“Is Harry ready to go back with Captain Bowline?” Louie asked Aussie.

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“Nope. Couldn’t miss the big event.”

“I’m staying here while they’re off on their honeymoon, then we’re going back to Rockvalle. Mr. McAllister suggested making you permanent lighthouse keeper with the option of having your summers off. When school’s over in Rockvalle, all of us want to come back here to live and man the light.”

“Well, that sounds like a right smart plan. Gettin’ used to being a regulah lighthouse keepah again. I’ll be glad to spell ye durin’ the winter. Then ye can spell me durin’ the summah.”

Louie looked up at the lighthouse tower shining in the sun. Home is where my heart is, he thought, and right now my heart is here.

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CHAPTER 24

The Wedding Clear, sunny, and calm. A perfect day for a weddin’,” Aussie told Ma when he returned from extinguishing the lighthouse lamp.

“Wonder how many folks will come?” Ma scurried around the kitchen checking on plates and cups and utensils. “Hope we won’t run out of these. We have lots to do before guests arrive. So, let’s see,” she paused and made some notes on a chalk board Louie had found in his loft bedroom. “Aussie, will you prepare to row the dory out if any ships anchor on the leeward side? Louie, you can greet guests at the wharf in case any boats leave off passengers before going out to drop anchor.”

“But when do I get dressed?”

“After Sam gets here, you two can change up in your loft room.”

“And ye’re not suppos’d to see ’im till the actual weddin’— superstition, ye know,” Harry said. “Where will ye be?”

“Guess I’ll just have to stay in my room until time.”

The actual marriage ceremony was scheduled to take place at high tide—that was to be 2:30 P.M. Ma had decided it would be held outside by the two trees.

“What about Scout, Ma?” Louie asked. “She’ll bark at everyone who comes.”

“Best she come and stay with me in the lighthouse tower,” Harry said. “Why don’t I bring ’er down when the weddin’ starts and keep ’er on a leash, at least until after?”

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“And maybe I’ll join you up in the lighthouse tower so I can see who comes out by ship. I hate to stay cooped up in my room for two hours. Sam’s supposed to come around noon,” Ma said.

“So do I come and get you there when it’s time?” Louie said. She wanted him to walk with her and give her away. Louie didn’t understand why he was giving her away to Uncle Sam. Ma wasn’t leaving him. Sam Hornblower was coming into their family.

“When Bishop Williams says, ‘Who gives this woman to this man?’ you answer, ‘I do.’ Then you walk over to stand by Sam’s side—at that time you become his best man. He’ll give you my ring before the ceremony, and you put it in your pocket and give it back to him when it’s time.”

It sounded too complicated to Louie, and he hoped he could remember it all.

“After the marriage ceremony, we go back to the house and shake hands with our guests. Then you’re free, unless one of the guests wants to go up into the tower and see the Fresnel Lens. If they do, you can be a guide,” Ma concluded.

“We’ll spell ye, laddie,” Aussie added.

“Do we have enough water in the cistern?” Ma asked Aussie.

“Believe so, Ma’am, but I’ll check.” Aussie looked into the cistern. “She’s a mite low.” Ma made another note on her chalkboard. “Ask Captain Bowline to bring extra water.”

By noontime they had managed to cross off many of the items on the chalkboard and had added more.

“Take this chalkboard down to the wharf, Louie, and give it to Captain Bowline so he’ll bring these items on his next trip.”

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Scout followed Louie down the hill. They reached the wharf just as Rainbow was pulling alongside. Uncle Sam tried to help the older man beside him step out of the boat—Louie thought he must be the bishop—but he started to fall back, so Louie had to practically pull him up.

“Louie, please greet Bishop Williams,” said Uncle Sam, who now was helping Captain Bowline unload some boxes. “He’s the one who is going to marry us.” Louie handed the chalkboard to Captain Bowline.

“Missus says I got to get back to bring out more folks and more food and get this stuff on yer ma’s list.”

He reversed Rainbow’s engine and headed back to the town wharf.

“Mr. McAllister’s commandeered the lighthouse tender for the day to bring out anyone from town and other stuff for the weddin’ reception,” he called back to Louie, who was helping Uncle Sam and Bishop Williams carry their valises up the steps.

“You’re to change in my loft room—but you can’t see Ma. Come on, Scout. I’ll take you to Aussie.” Louie climbed up the lighthouse tower stairs, where he found Aussie. He had the spyglass in his hands and was scanning the ocean for ships.

“See them boats coming from each side of the island?” He gave the spyglass to Louie. Louie could see the tender getting ready to anchor with lots of people onboard. But when he turned the spyglass to look toward the leeward side of the island, he saw a strange fishing vessel anchoring. “Wonder who that could be?”

“Best get back down to the wharf to help those folks comin’ to shore in the tender dory. Harry’ll take care of the pup. Your ma will 133

be comin’ up soon and there’s only room fer two. Best you get back down to help at wharf, but get back up here soon’s you unload folks from the tender.”

Two boatloads of people arrived from the tender—everyone seemed to be carrying some kind of food. Louie didn’t remember Ma saying anything about food. He panicked. His hands started sweating and he wiped them on his overalls. People with dishes of food stood on the wharf waiting for him to tell them where to go and what to do with their food. Out of the corner of his eye Louie spotted Rainbow on her return trip. Mrs. Bowline was sitting in the bow.

Finally, it dawned on him to ask all of the folks standing around with dishes in their hands to wait at the top of the steps for Mrs. Bowline. He told them, “If you see Sam Hornblower, maybe he can tell you where to go with your food,” saying it with more confidence than he felt because he didn’t really know where Uncle Sam was by now. “Mrs. Bowline will be along soon to take your dishes.”

I sure hope he’s there to show them and that Ma’s up in the lighthouse tower, Louie said to himself as he watched the guests climb up the winding steps.

Just as he was ushering the last boatload of guests up the steps, he saw some familiar figures waving to him from the top. Charlie, Abram, Dan, Billy—how did they get here? Harry was beside them, beckoning frantically to him. Louie started up the steps. He looked back over his shoulder to see Rainbow at the wharf.

“Mrs. Bowline,” he called out to the woman in the bow. “People with food waiting for you!” Then he took the rest of the steps two by two and found Uncle Sam just coming out of the house, dressed in a blue lighthouse keeper jacket with brass buttons and white trousers!

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“Hurry upstairs and get dressed, Louie. Your wedding clothes are laid out on the bed. I put the ring into your right pocket.”

“Where…?” Louie pointed to Uncle Sam’s jacket.

“Mr. McAllister gave me this when he made me a relief keeper,” he answered. “Better get your wedding clothes on, the music has started.”

Louie decided he’d put on his lighthouse jacket, too, and wear it with his new trousers. He buttoned his jacket as he went running by the chicken roost to the lighthouse tower. He practically bumped into Ma, who was waiting for him by the door. Harry was right behind her with Scout on her leash.

Louie stood and stared at Ma. She had on a long white dress with puffed sleeves and—a hat. At least this one doesn’t have feathers, he thought. She smiled at him and offered him her arm.

“OK, Louie. This is it. Let’s go.”

Louie felt awkward and shy walking beside his mother, especially with crowds of people staring at them. Careful. Better not trip, he thought. In between the two trees someone had strung white ribbons and bells, and there stood Uncle Sam in his lighthouse jacket and Bishop Williams in his clergy robes. Louie kept his eyes on Uncle Sam as he walked with Ma toward the two men.

He managed to whisper, “I do,” when Bishop Williams said, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” Ma gave him a nudge, and he moved over to the other side of Uncle Sam, who now stood beside Ma. When the moment came to exchange wedding vows, Uncle Sam looked over at Louie and mouthed, “The ring.” Louie reached in his pocket, but the ring wasn’t there. Suddenly he remembered that 135

Uncle Sam had put it in his new suit jacket that he hadn’t worn. His held out his empty hand and then pointed to the house.

Uncle Sam leaned over to Bishop Williams and whispered, “Time for a sermon.” He turned to Louie. “Run and get the ring.”

Bishop Williams hemmed and hawed, cleared his throat, and began to talk about how marriage between a man and a woman was like Christ with His church. Louie took this as a cue and backed his way through the crowd, passing Harry and Scout as he did so. Scout pulled at her leash and started to bark. Harry said, “Hush.”

Louie ran into the house and took the loft steps two by two. He found the ring and ran back, jostling his way through the crowd mouthing, “Excuse me” every time he pushed someone aside as he went.

Panting by the time he reached Uncle Sam, he sidled up close and put the ring in Uncle Sam’s waiting hand. Bishop Williams sighed, concluded his impromptu sermon, and said to the couple standing before him, “You may now say your vows.” Louie stepped back and bumped into Charlie, who gave him their cross-handed shake. With his old friend beside him, Louie took a deep breath and felt less embarrassed.

“How’d you get here?” he whispered to Charlie.

Just then Bishop Williams said to the crowd, “Make way for Mr. and Mrs. Hornblower.”

Aussie, who was holding Louie’s Brownie camera, snapped several photographs of the newly married couple. Bishop Williams continued. “The bride and groom invite you to greet them in the parlor of the lighthouse, where you’ll find food and drinks.” People applauded and made a pathway for the Hornblowers.

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Louie didn’t have a chance to get Charlie’s answer because his new father caught him by the elbow in passing. “Come walk with us.

We’re an official family now.”

Louie stood with Ma and his new father to shake hands until his feet hurt. He recognized so many of the guests, and each of them wanted to stop and talk. Captain Bowline, Tommy, and Mrs. Bowline led the way. “Got to get to the kitchen to get ready to serve all these people,” she whispered to Ma. Ma had a worried look on her face.

She whispered back, “Do you have enough helpers?” Mrs. Bowline nodded and hurried into the kitchen. Harry and Aussie followed.

“Abram and Captain Spade have Scout outside,” Harry said.

Louie looked surprised. Mr. McAllister came next with the inspector.

Louie shook hands with Mrs. Missen, Lucy, and Ben, who was helping Captain Spade walk. Louie couldn’t believe that they were here too. There were a few folks from the church, Gus and Captain Shiver, and many of the townsfolk.

“Can I leave now,” he whispered to Ma, “to go and find my friends? My arm is getting tired and my feet hurt.”

“Go!” Ma said.

Louie found Charlie, Abram, and Dan and Billy Burke down by the boathouse and cowshed. Charlie was telling Abram how he’d set the cow’s tail on fire.

“How’d you all get here?” Louie asked again.

“My pa found one of his fishing captain friends who brought us over in his fishing schooner. Papa said he wanted to come, too, and show us the right way to avoid the reef.” Abram smiled.

Maybe Captain Spade wasn’t such a bad father after all, Louie thought.

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“And then my whole family wanted to come,” Charlie added, “and the youth group. Instead of sardines, we had a full ship of people.”

They all went back up to the house. People were everywhere, sitting with plates on their laps. Louie wondered if they had enough plates. But when he spied the line of folks ready to tour the lighthouse tower, he remembered that Aussie was probably stuck up there and excused himself from his friends to relieve him.

“I’ll be back when Aussie relieves me,” he told his friends as he made his way to the front of the line of waiting guests. He climbed the tower steps and sent Aussie back down.

“Go on in and get something to eat,” he said.

By four o’clock everyone had been fed and had toured the lighthouse tower. Harry came to the bottom of the lighthouse tower steps and called up to Louie.

“Come on down. Yer Ma and Pa are gettin’ ready to leave.”

Louie got back to the house just in time to see them come out the door holding their hands over their heads as guests threw rice at them. Ma beckoned to Louie to go down the steps to the wharf first.

He felt the sting of the rice on his face as he made his way through the crowd and down the steps. He gasped when he saw Rainbow decked out from bow to stern with streamers and ropes tied to tin cans. On the side was draped a banner that read,

BON VOYAGE, MR. AND MRS. HORNBLOWER Ma and his new father each gave him a hug as Captain Bowline helped the two of them board.

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“We’ll be back soon, son.”

Louie gulped back his tears. For the first time in a year, being called son didn’t bother him. His knew his heart would be forever with this family either in his island home or his mainland home.

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Leaving the Lighthouse available from www.Amazon.com/books

BOOKS BY TERRY WEBB www.marytheresawebb.com Louie Lighthouse Book Series Series Study Guide (eBook Only) Manning the Light # 1 Weathering the Storms # 2 Mystery and Mishap # 3 Leaving the Lighthouse # 4 Costly Freedom Thaddeus Stevens: An Inconvenient Hero 140