Summary

In 1919, 11-year-old Jackie Wallace lived with his mother on Assateague Island, which was smaller and less developed than the rest of the Shore. A wealthy farmer named Sam Fields had purchased much of Assateague a few years ago, and restricted locals’ access to the bay for fishing and crabbing, spurring many of them to emigrate until only about 20 families remained. Jackie’s own older sister, Alice, had gone to live with their father’s brother, “Uncle Leo,” on Chincoteague Island in order to work as a housemaid and laundress. Jackie’s father had drowned in a fishing accident when Jackie was a toddler, leaving the rest of the family in poverty.

The chapter starts with Jackie sitting on the lighthouse hill, watching the Assateague church being rowed away toward Chincoteague on a barge to be converted into a house. Then Uncle Leo showed up...