LM Montgomery owns Anne of Green Gables. Margaret Mitchell owns some other characters. I own the characters you don't recognize from any stories you have read. And legal disclaimers are for the birds. Tweet Tweet.
The summer that Marybeth Hamilton decided to vacation in Canada, she also decided to bring only her youngest children with her. She wound up bringing six of them. Ted, Beau and Wade Jr. went with her, as well as Anna, Henry and Jomishie.
Ted, Beau and Wade Jr. Hamilton were at that fortunate age after young childhood with its need for constant supervision, but before the need to plan for the future tied them down to work, and they made the most of that summer, mostly running wild with Jem and Walter Blythe and Jerry Meredith.
One evening the boys had obtained permission to go to the beach to build a bonfire and have a cookout. The Blythe and Meredith girls went with them, and even Anna had permission to go, but she was under strict orders to report home at sundown.
Somehow, word had gone around town that there would be a bonfire at the beach and no sooner had a roaring fire been built than a few uninvited guests showed up. They were kids from the Harbour Mouth, that were known to them by first name, although not very well. The Rainbow Valley kids didn't want to appear unfriendly, so they reluctanly invited them to sit around the fire.
The Harbour Mouth kids were prone to trouble, and their ringleader. a sandy-haired boy with a severe underbite named Joey, brought out a bottle of whiskey that he'd hidden in his jacket and started opening it.
Jerry Meredith saw the bottle first and leaned over and and said politely, "You can't do that here."
"Says who?" retorted Joey.
"There's girls here," Jerry shrugged and smiled placatingly. "You understand."
"No, I don't ."
"Then I'll have to ask you to leave," Jerry insisted.
"Oh yeah, you don't own the whole beach."
"Maybe not," Said Jem, who had come up beside Jerry, "But we do own the bonfire."
"Well, we've decided we like it here. We're not leaving." Joey crossed his arms and refused to move.
"You wanna take this over there?" Beau Hamilton said to Joey menacingly, gesturing to an area of empty sandy beach. Beau was not a boy to start arguments, but he loved to jump into a fracas, often on the slimmest of pretenses, much to his mother's despair. Wade Jr. put a restraining hand on his arm.
"Let's just go, Joey." That came from a Harbour Mouth boy named Lee. Lee had realized that they were outnumbered and didn't want to cause that much trouble tonight.
Joey must have come to the same realization, because he aquiesced, with much grumbling. As a parting shot, he mumbled something about "sissy preacher's kid".
"Hey, you wanna come back here and say that?" Yelled Beau.
"Just forget it, Beau," said Jerry. "He's not worth it."
In the meanwhile, the girls had been watching this interchange with some interest. None of them were strangers to schoolyard fighting, but it would have been a shame to spoil this nice evening.
The evening was nice; they played games, and cooked some food over the open fire, and even wet their feet in the ocean. At sundown, Anna and Una walked home, and Walter was entertaining his friends with his stories while they ate when they heard a sound somewhere between a shriek and a laugh.
The Harbour Mouth kids had not left the beach completely. They simply moved to some rocks which were close enough for the Rainbow Valley kids to see, but not to hear. At least, until the strange noise.
More young people had joined the group on the rocks and the whiskey had flowed freely. Joey had not been the only kid to bring alcohol. The shriek had come from a girl who seemed to be pushed or pulled around by some of the boys in the group. The girl shrieked again, and the boys at the bonfire looked at each other, then decided to go investigate, while the girls stayed back and watched from a distance.
When they got close enough to see clearly, one of the Harbour Mouth boys, named Frankie, had the girl by the upper arm, and she was trying to push him away.
"Is there a problem here?" Jem said.
"No, and if there were, it wouldn't be any of your business," said Frankie, who seemed to think the girl's struggles were funny.
"I think the young lady wants to be left alone," said Ted Hamilton.
"I think the young lady wants to be left alone," said Joey, who had stepped forward, mimicking Ted's accent.
"I've had just about enough out of you," yelled Beau, sprinting forward.
"Beau, stop!" said Ted, but he was too late. Beau had pounced on Joey and punched him in the face. Despite being quite drunk, Joey fought back and punched Beau in the nose. Frankie and Lee stood as if stunned for a moment before jumping Beau, who fought them off as best as he could. At this point, Jem grabbed Joey, Jerry grabbed Lee, and Beau shoved Frankie off him, sending him sprawling. In all the confusion, Ted led the girl away from the fight. Wade Jr. ran over and grabbed Beau by the arm before he could attack Frankie.
The boys all stood glaring at each other, panting, until Jem spoke.
"Let's just stop this now. Everybody got their punches in, I think it's gone far enough. Agreed?"
The Harbour Mouth boys looked at each other, and let Joey speak for them. "Agreed." He mumbled.
"What's your name, Miss?" Ted asked the girl. He had brought her over to the bonfire.
"Sadie," she grinned. "From Harbour Mouth." Ted looked at her sharply. She was swaying and she reeked of whiskey. He looked at the boys from her neighborhood, and over at his brothers and friends. Beau was dripping blood.
"Wade Jr., I want you to take Beau home and let Ma fix him up. Jem, Jerry, I think this barbeque is over. If you'll take the girls home, I'll walk Sadie here home." He lowered his voice and said to Walter, who was standing close by,"I don't dare let her walk home alone with that bunch." Walter nodded understandingly.
Marybeth was alone in the parlor, finishing the last pages of Mr. Meredith's book when Wade Jr. brought in a dripping Beau.
"Don't get mad, Ma" Beau said, as Marybeth stood up, shook her head and put her hands on her hips. "Some Harbour Mouth boys started trouble."
"It's true, Ma," Wade Jr. said, when she looked to him for confirmation. We just left from there. The party's over. But the girls are safe. Ted will be along pretty soon."
"Come on Beau, into the kitchen. Don't go bleeding all over the carpet," Marybeth said exasperatedly.
Forty-five minutes later, Ted came in, looking tired, and mumbled "Good night" as he kissed his mother and climbed up to bed.