Evening Star Newspaper, July 5, 1931, Page 62

F 10 THE SUNDAY STAR, WAS " OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN Eddie Bullfinch’s Outboard Motor (Homemade) and Enid Massey’s Enthusi- asm_for the Same —The Case of Clarissa and Pembroke Griggs—.Ambitious Paulie Timberlake, and Helen Carmichael’s Pet Rooster —These and Other Factors of Summer Resort Life. Pictures by WALLACE MORGAN. HAVE noticed that many of the Northern New England people seem to take satis- faction in keeping their troubles to them- selves, but when we Midlanders are in perplexity or distress we always want to tell somebody about it. So it is with by friend, Mr. Massey of Logans- ville, Ill. When his mind is under pressure he relieves himself by coming over to talk on the veranda of my secluded cottage at Cobble Reef, somes miles distant from Marys Neck, where he has his Summer residence. I perform the office of listener strictly, and one afternoon last August he empticd himself upon a theme of such universal concern that I now repeat his narrative almost precisely, I think, as I heard it from him. ) Over at Marys Neck (Mr. Massey said) we've been having kind of an outbreak. The whole percentage of our resort has worked itself up to a rampage, as you might call it, and a considerable amount of bad feeling has got so engendered that quite a number of parents over there have quit speaking to other parents, and it looks to me right now as if everything is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, if it ever does. . It seems to me the whole disturbance began with Eddie Bullfinch. Eddie's about the age of my younger daughter, Enid—somewhere near just barely 18—and he's a long, stringy sort of boy, with a childish nose, some sandyish hair that is always sprung a couple of inches at a place on the top of his head not far in advance of his baek cowlick. When he’s in our house he's dangerous to Mrs. Massey's antiques, be- cause he’s always thinking of something else, most likely how to persuade his father to let him take two automobiles apart and then stick the parts together so as to make one car thatll be 40 miles an hour faster than either of the original cars was. Well, one afternoon about a month ago I was trying to take a nap in our front porch ham- mock, but couldn't because of what I thought was the singular conduct of an airplane. It would hum a while and then go plop and stop, and I'd think “Glory! It's fallen!” and almost drowse off, and then it would begin again and get me all wide awake. So after a while I got up and walked down to our harbor. It's a mighty pretty little harbor, as you know, mostly with green banks around it and not more than three or four hundred yards across, even at high water. Quite a number of the Neck’s Summer colony live there in right pleasant cottages and there's a little old wharf where I liked to sit on a pile of weather-beaten planks and watch the little sailboats, mostly with children in them, skimming around over this safe and quiet stretch of water. BU’I‘ that day I couldn't sit on the pile of planks because all the sitting space was occupied by boys between the ages of 8 and 16, mainly cottagers’ offspring, and all of them interested in something Eddie Bullfinch was doing. Eddie and Enid were in a little flat- bottomed boat that Enid was holding to the wharf. Eddie was in the stern, working at a contraption he'd fastened behind the back seat. It looked to me something like a clothes-wringer imade of metal, with a thick disk on top and a little propeller that you could see just under the water, and I learned later he’d made it principally out of an old motorcycle engine and some odd parts. He was tugging at the disk, trying to make it turn, when suddenly it began to spin and a most terrible uproar broke out from the clothes- wringer. The boat shot away and began to scoot round and round the harbor. With a kind of flopping motion and as much noise as the Joudest airplane could make, and of course all those boys on the wharf were pretty excited and envious. * Little Paulic Timberlake was the most so, although Paulie’s only 9 years old. I knew Paulie pretty well and he’s an interesting child, but he’s got an eye that disturbs me. When he looks at me he slways seems to be saying to himself, “Now what could I do to this old slob that would entertain me?” When Eddie Bulifinch’s improvised motorboat went scooting off around the harbor little Paulie began to jump up and down. “I'm goin’ to have one of those myself!” he squealed.. “¥You can ‘buy 'etglnes fifty times - beiter than that readymade and I'm goin’ to meke my mother order me one this very minnit! I have me one thatll go 60 miles an hour and make that ole boat out there sick at its stummick!” Most of the other boys were telling each other all about how they were going to have speed boats with outside motors better than Eddie’s and not paying any attention to little Paulie, or to each other, for that matter, and as their conversation seemed pret'y limited and the noise made by Eddie's boat wasn't very pleasant, I started back to our cottage. But on the road just beyond the wharf I met little Paulie’s father, Mr. Timberlake, and his great friend, Mr. Carmichael, who lives next door to hin on the harbor, and both of them were looking considerably put out. “Do you recognize the boy in that disgusting boat?” Mr, Timberlake asked me. “Isn't it Ed- die Bullfinch? If it is, somebody ought to telephone his mother and father and ask them how long they’re going to allow him to ruin the peace of this community. The noise on the waterfront is simply outrageous!” “ ‘Outrageous’ is too good a word for it,” Mr, Carmichael said fiercely. “It's been going on now for over an hour and there isn't a cot- tage on the harbor where you can hear your- self think. My wife’'s aunt, a very dear old lady, is staying with us and that horrible din had upset her so that she's gone to bed with a headache. At the Floyds’, next door, a game of contract’s being utterly ruined and they had to give up playing. Margaret Floyd asked me to find out how long this uproar is going to be permitted to continue. If it's going on all after- noon, she saild she was going to telephone that traffic officer in the village and demand that he do something about it. Do you know who it is that's making this disturbance, Mr. Mas- sey? Is it Eddie Bullfinch?” I was embarrassed because, as my own daugh- ter, Enid, was in the boat with ‘Eddie and abetting him in the nuisance he was making, I naturally would be. So instead of answering right away, I began to kind of cough a little, the way people often do under such circum- stances, and before I got through coughing little Paulie Timberlake came running out from the wharf. “Papa!” he shouted. “Papa, I got to have one of those right this minnit!” Mr. Timberlake looked pretty dark. ‘“One of those what?” he said, and his voice was right cross. *“‘One of those what?” “One of those——" Paulie began; then he Jooked at his father with his sharp, bright little eyes and stopped. “Papa, where’s mamma?” he said. “Is she at home now?” “Yes, she is, and you'd b:tter trot right along there yourself.” “I'm goin’ to,” little Paulie told him. “That's where I am goin’, papa.” And he ran off down the road in a hurry that looked fairly purpose- ful to me. R. CARMICHAEL stared after him. “I wouldn't let a child of mine have one of those things if she cried her eyes out,” he said. “If my daughter even asked me for one, I'd have her mother punish her.” This seemed a little harsh to me, especailly as Mr. Carmichael's daughter is only 5 years old, but Mr. Timberlake agreed with him. “Any parent who would allow his child to disturb a whole community in that manner,” he said, “would be guilty not only of causing the child to be regarded as a menace to the general peace, but also of abominable parental selfishness. People who haven’t strength ¢f mind enough to prevent their children from becoming com- munity nuisances should be made to understand clearly that the public opinion of Marys Neck is against them.” “Absolutely!” Mr. Carmichael said. “Eddie Bullfinch's parents ought to b= made to under- stand that absolutely, and so ocught the parents of the girl that's with him. Absolutely!” Well, this made me feel more embarrassed and kind of guilty than ever. So, after cough- ing some more and laughing, sort of, in a way I meant to be non-committal but genial, I drifted back up home, where I found Mrs. Massey out on the porch, sewing. I told her what was . going on and what Mr. Timberlake and Mr. Carmichael had been saying about the noise, which was still sounding, but Mrs, Massey didn’t take any stock in it. “Those two men have a lot to do, I must say, making a fuss over “children’s having a little innocent pleasure,” she said. “I know all about it because I was down there myself earlier this afternoon and was pleased to see Enid having such a good time. Of course, that machine does make a pretty loud humming, but from up here it’s rather a soothing sound, and there’s this advantage about it: As long as we hear it, we can tell where she is, and that’s certainly a satisfaction.” It seemed to me she was right. At least, that's the view I took of it at the time, but the next day at the beach I could tell that " Mz, Timberlake and Mr, Carmichael and the Floyd family and the MacGregor family and “Pemmie Griggs came up, took Larkie by the collar and p the Griggs family and all the other families that lived on the harbor had found out who the girl with Eddie Bullfinch was, because some mighty chilly and penetrating locks shot over in my direction and Mr. Timberlake came up to me and asked me in a pretty severe manner if I'd noticed that the noise was going on again this morning and if anybody had spoken to Mr. and Mrs. Bullfinch about it yet. I sort of coughed myself away from him, but, murder! I needn’t have worried about him or about what he thought. Three afternoons later, a noise broke out in the harbor that almost drowned the sound of Eddie Bullfinch's extemporized motor. I was down there, and if was little Paulie Timberlake. He came shooting out from the Timberlake's pler in a rowboat with an engine fastened to it that I learned later Mrs. Timberlake had sent their chauffeur to Lodgeport to buy for little Paulie. Little Paulie had made the chauf- feur take the plate off the muffier, so that his engine could make more noise than was natural and increase the speed of his boat. I estimated that the child was getting about 35 miles an hour out of the thing and he cer- tainly must have been pleased with the noise, because it was about the same that a series of exploding giant firecrackers would make— only it would take a string of such firecrackers a ntile or so0 in length to create the commotion that little Paulie enjoycd, because he never stopped going round and round the harbor with his contraption until just about dark. What's more, several boys whose families lived at a distance from the harbor got boats equipped like little Paulie’s before the week was over and all that section of Marys Neck began to scund like a dozen planing mills de- fended by a park of light artillery in continu- ous action. F course, by this time, the buzz-buzzing at the beach had come to be about as dangerous to the pcace of the community as the uproar was itself. All the families whose children were not contributing to the noise were sitting around raving in undertones about the families that had children that were out in the boats, and a good many embarrassing things began to be overheard by the wrong people But what interested me was the changd in Mr. Timberlake. He came up to where Mrs, Massey and I were sitting with the Bullfinch .family, watching the bathers, and sat down with us, as affable as a man could be. “I hear one of your daughters is enjoying the new sport, too,” he said. “Great thing, isn't it? At first I thought the noise was going to be a little trcublesome, maybe, but as soon as you get used to it it's right pleasant. Mrs. Timberlake and I talked it over and decided it'd be a wonderful thing for our little Paulie, and it certainly is! Since he’s been engaged in this new sport our whole family life has changed, because now we can always tell exactly what he's doing all day long. It's a wonderful thing for the children—keeps ‘em interested in wholesome sport and out in the healthy air. “I don’t know what some people are thinking of to start all this fuss over it. Carmichael’s been making a perfect fool of himself. Mrs. Ruckleboys told my wife some things that Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael had been saying about us —absolutely outrageous! My wife called ‘em on the telephone and they couldn’t deny a word of it. She had the goods right on 'em. And the worst of it was that Carmichael got pretty insolent. We've had to cut ‘em off our list. I suppose you know that most of the cottagers that are near the harbor are talking a good deal about you and Mrs. Massey, t00.” “Are they?” I asked him. “Well, no, I hadn’t heard.” h “Oh, my goodness, yes!” he said. “They blame all us parents and, of course, you and Mrs. Massey couldn’t hope to escape, after your daughter and Eddie Bullfinch started the whole thing. Let ’em talk! Much good it'l do ‘em! Why, since little Paulic’s taken up this sport he's like a new boy!” Here Mr. Timberlake looked challenging and fierce. “If they think I'm going to sacrifice the health of my child just because some of those old dodoes can't stand a little wholesome noise, they'd better make another guess!” . Well, I feit kind of sympathetic with him. It seemed to me that if Enid was enjoying her- self and getting all healthy and rosy and every- thing, nobody had any right to interfere, it looked to me a good deal as if Mr. Timbd lake was right about it, although his attityl had certainly been pretty contradictory. - ‘Then, that very day, a kind of a funny thi happened to me and Mrs. Massey. When got home from the beach, Enid and Eddie Bu finch were in the side yard, working wj Eddie’s clotheswringer and the frame of an motor cycle and something that looked like child’s bathtub. I asked them what they w doing and they said they were fixing up motor cycle and a sidecar. s “But isn't that the fhing you had fasten| onto your little boat?” I asked Eddie. He told me yes, but said they’d got bor with the motor boating and weren’t going do it any more. They were too old for it, th said; only children could keep excited abol tearing round and round the harbor for lo and, anyway, there was so much carbon mono! ide down there from exhausts it gave Enid headache. They were through. Well, sir, the funny thing was that right th| very minute the noise from down in the ha bor began to sound more disagreeable to me, aj when I asked Mrs. Massey how she felt, she sa it did to her, too, and by late afternoon s said if that roaring didn't stop pretty sodg she believed she’d go crazy. As for the peop that lived down there right by the water, just didn’t see how they could bear it we definitely joined the party of violent o jectors. Next day at the beach we found the Bu finches—Eddie’s father and mother—had join that party, too, but there happened to ta place a little encounter between Mrs. Mass and Mrs. Bullfinch. Mrs. Bullfinch was spea ing in an amiable manner, but she made remark that both Mrs. Massey and I felt w uncalled for. “Of course, everybody’s blaming you and for allowing our children to start all this tel rible nuisance,” Mrs. Bullfinch said. *“Naturall our Eddie is too considerate and unselfish boy to keep on doing anything that he fou out was disturbing the pleasure of quiet-lovi people, and I've bcen telling the MacGrego! and Griggses and everybody I could sce th he's stcpped. Of course, he really had pra tically nothing to do with it from the beghj ning; he's always so eager to give pleasure others that almost any girl can wind him rou: her little finger, and if onz of 'em wanted see how fast he could make a boat go wi his old motor cycle enginc, why, the poor chi wculd just break his neck to do it for her.” RS. MASSEY made a little sound in h throat, kind of polite, but one I nevd like to hear because I've learned that it mea she’s internally combusting. *“Good gracious she said. “You don’t suppose Enid influenc him to do such a thing!” Mrs. Bullfinch gave a kind of painful smil “Oh, no,” she said. “I never dreamed of allud ing to Enid. I have no idea just which of t big .crowd of fiappers here got him into it; only meant it must have been one of 'em. He so good-natured, any of 'em seems to be abl to make whatever use of him she likes.” Mrs.. Massey didn’t answer right away, b her face was red, and I was beginning to b scared about what she'd say as soon as she gd good and able tospeak, when there came interruption that fortunately changed the cours of the conversation. Right near us, on sand, were two little boys, Paulie Timberlal and Brockie Griggs, and what prevented Mr§ Massey from saying anything to Mrs, Bullfinc! just then was a ruckus that broke out betwee these two children. Paulie wasn’t contributing to the uproar the harbor that morning. He was in his bat ing suit, and he and Brockie Griggs had bee! talking together pretty shrilly, when, all once, both of them began to squawk and hj each other as hard as they could, and cry. They had quite a real little set-to, and i seemed to me that I heard several bits © grown-up fighting language from each of then before their parents could jump up and them separated. Mr. Timberlake took Pauli away somewhere and Mr. Griggs walked dow the beach - with Brockie, leaving . Mrs. Grigg] and.Mrs. Timberlake together; and it seemed to me I never heard:- iwo women show mor