To Ocean Island:
This is a story that RMP thought of in 1948, during a painting trip to Monhegan Island in Maine. The fire in this story really happened that summer, and he and the other painters helped put it out with Indian Pumps.
RMP wrote only Chapter One and an outline of the rest, which I, RGP, the Richie in the story, completed in 2021. But since I was there, most of the details are just as they were, except that it was my Dad’s idea that I saved the Island.
I do remember that there was a fire and I had never heard of anything so exciting as Indian Pumps.
Chapter 1: Let’s Go to the Ocean!
Richie watched Daddy paint. Daddy was an artist. Richie was his little boy. Daddy was painting a picture of the ocean.
But they were in the city and the ocean was a long way off. Daddy looked out the window. He saw the elevated trains going by. He heard the trucks honking down in the street.
“I wish I wanted to paint an elevated train,” he said. “Or a truck.”
Daddy wanted to paint the ocean.
Richie wanted Daddy to paint the ocean, too.
“Let’s go to the ocean!” said Richie.
“Who?” said Daddy.
“All of us!” said Richie. “The whole family.”
“All of us? Even Bethy?” Daddy asked. Bethy was three months old.
“Sure. She’d like the ocean.” It was hot in the city.
Richie was sure everyone would like to be near the ocean. He ran to the kitchen. Mother was there.
“Would you like to go to the ocean, Mom?” he asked.
Mother came out of the kitchen.
“Why not?” she said. “I think that is a wonderful idea. We can swim and play while Daddy works. We will have fun and Daddy will have fun too. He can paint what he likes. I’ll write to a man who rents houses near the ocean. He will have a house for us.”
Daddy said, “It’s worth a try.” It was so hot!
That night Mother wrote a letter to the man who rented houses near the ocean. Then they all waited.
The next week Mother got letter. It was about a house on an island. Ocean Island. The house had everything mother wanted. It had a porch for Bethy. What more could Bethy want?
And the Island had what Daddy wanted. Ocean all around. Waves breaking on the rocks. Sea gulls. Boats. Fishermen.
Wonderful pictures to paint.
And best of all it was “To Let” for the season!
June 15th until September 15th. What could be more exciting!
“Yippee,” said Richie.
“Wonderful,” said Daddy.
“Ungle-widle,” said Bethy.
“Tomorrow we’ll pack,” said mother. “The big box will hold everything.”
“What big box?” asked Daddy.
“That big wooden box we have in the storeroom.” Mother had saved the box. She saved lots of funny things. “Tomorrow I’ll have Herman get the box.” Herman was the building superintendent. Herman got the box the next day, but it took all day to pack it. It was a big box.
Richie put in his dump truck.
Mother put in her knitting.
Daddy put in all the books he wanted to rad.
Richie put in all his blocks. His pail and his shovel. He wanted to put in his bicycle, but Mother didn’t think that was a good idea. There weren’t any sidewalks, or even streets on Ocean Island.
Mother put in all the magazines she was saving to read.
Daddy put in his paints, of course!
Richie put in his raincoat & boots & ski pants and swimsuit. You never know what will happen on an island!
Mother put in a typewriter.
Daddy put in canvas to paint on.
Richie put in the tennis racquets.
Everyone put in old clothes to play in.
And everyone put in things for Bethy. A buggy, folded up, of course. A bathinette. A play-pen. Diapers. Bottles. Sterilizer. Rattles. A ball. A doll.
Three months is a long time to be gone. But it was a big box and it held everything.
Mother filled up the corners with mending, to do on the beach.
“All done,” she said. She was glad the packing was over.
But Richie came running.
“Please put these in,” he said. He had his binoculars in his hand. Binoculars are to see with.
“Oh,” said mother. “I don’t think they will fit in, Richie.”
“Please,” Richie said. “Binoculars are important.”
Mother looked at Daddy.
Daddy reached into the box and took out a book.
“All right,” he said. “But I will bet that you will never use the binoculars, Richie.”
But Richie knew that it was very important to have binoculars near the ocean.
Daddy nailed the box shut. Mother called the expressman and asked him to come the next morning. Then everyone went to bed.
“We want to go to Maine today,” she told the expressman when he came.
He looked at the box. He tried but he couldn’t move it. “You can’t send that on the train with you,” he said. “That’s freight.”
“But freight is for cars and cows and refrigerators, and that will cost more money.” Mother looked at Daddy. The big box was her idea. Oh, dear!
“Sorry, lady, but that’s a big box. I’ll send a freight man over,” the expressman said. He started to go.
“But we want to go today,” Mother said.
“Maybe he can come right away,” the expressman said.
And the freight man did come! Wasn’t that lucky!
He brought three other men and they used a dolly. They got the box on their truck. It was on its way!
“Now if we hurry we can get the train,” said Daddy.
Daddy took Bethy in her basket. He took his easel.
Mother took a suitcase and some lunch for the train.
Richie took Richie and that was enough.
At last they were on their way!
They took a cab. The cab took them to the train.
The train took them on a long, long ride. It was called the “State of Maine Express” but it was the slowest express. On and on they went. It seemed the engineer stopped to say hello to every farmer in every field.
Bethy didn’t mind.
Daddy read a book.
Mother knitted a sweater.
But Richie could hardly wait. He wanted the engineer to have friends, but he wanted to get to Ocean Island very much.
“Gosh,” he said looking out the window at a sign. “We’ll never get there. What does that sign say, Daddy?”
But the sign said GET OFF HERE FOR OCEAN ISLAND BOAT.
What a scramble to get off the boat before the train started!
“It was a good thing Richie was paying attention,” Daddy said, “Or we would have missed the boat.”
Richie smiled. He liked to be some good to the family.
Chapter 2: The Mail Boat
They all got off the train. Mother put Bethy in the stroller and Richie pushed her to the dock. They watched the boat come in.
Lots of people got off the boat.
They had to wait while the Captain picked up some big bags to carry onto the boat. Richie went to the Captain. “What’s in the bags?” he asked.
“That’s the mail. I have to take it to Ocean Island.”
“Can I help?” Richie asked.
“Pick up that package and carry it onto the boat. But don’t drop it into the water.”
Richie went back and forth carrying packages onto the boat.
Mother and Daddy took Bethy onto the boat and sat down on seats. All the seats were outside.
“What will happen if it rains?” Richie asked.
The Captain said, “We will get wet.”
Richie thought that made sense.
The Captain thanked Richie for being a big help. “What’s your name?” he asked.
Richie told him his name, and the Captain said, “My name is Captain James.”
Captain James told everyone it would take two hours to get to Ocean Island. He told them there were life preservers under the seats. They were orange. They would only put them on if the boat was sinking. Richie hoped the boat would sink so he could put on a life preserver.
The Captain said the sea would get rough when they got out of the harbor. “If you feel sick hang over the side.” Richie said, “I’m not going to get sick.” He had the mumps last year. He had decided he was never going to get sick again.
But he did get sick. So did Daddy and Mother. The only one who didn’t get sick was Bethy. She slept the whole trip.
It rained. It was cold. The Captain kept blowing his horn. Richie told the Captain he was going to wake up his baby sister. The Captain said the horn was so other boats would not hit them.
Richie decided that was a good idea. The Captain seemed to know a lot.
When they got to the Island a man with a truck met the boat. They all climbed onto the truck, Mother and Bethy on the seat of the truck. Daddy and Richie sat in the back with the suitcase and the buggy.
There was so much rain and fog on the Island they couldn’t see where they were going. The man with the truck knew the way. He helped them into the house. It was nice and warm because the man had built a fire. He lit a kerosene lamp and told Mother and Father that there was no electricity on the Island. They hadn’t known that.
“I know what electricity is,” Richie told the man. “If you put a fork in the plug it melts and burns your hand.”
“Well, you won’t be able to do that here,” the man said. No plugs.
“I wasn’t going to do it anyway. Daddy said that kind of thing was bad luck to do once, but dumb to do twice. I’m pretty smart.”
They were all tired. They ate some sandwiches, and all went to bed. That was how they got to Ocean Island.
Chapter 3: The Island
The next morning it was sunny and bright.
Richie couldn’t wait to eat breakfast and go out to explore the Island.
Daddy took his paints and easel and went out to make some paintings.
There was only one store, and it also was the post office. It had an American flag in front of it. Richie went inside. He had a question. “I want to find clams,” he said. “Where are they?”
The lady who ran the store and the post office took him outside. She pointed down the road. “When you come to a path on the right, walk down it, and you will come to a little beach. There might be clams there.”
Richie had another question. He had trouble remembering left from right. The lady put a rubber band around his right hand. “Now you won’t forget.” That was a good idea. The lady was pretty smart!
Richie walked down the road and saw the path. He checked the rubber band and knew it was the right path. The path on the right. He came to the beach, but he didn’t see any clams. He wondered where they were.
He saw a little girl. He asked her, “Where are all the clams?”
She said, “They are under the sand, but where’s your shovel? You need a shovel to dig them up.” But it was still in the big box.
Richie thought, “You need to know a lot of things to do anything on this island. I better make friends with this girl. She seems to know a lot.”
He told her his name was Richie. She said her name was Debbie. “Where do you come from?” she asked.
“From the city,” he said. “We got here last night.”
“I live here,” she said. “My mother is the nurse.”
“I was sick on the boat,” Richie said. “But I am all right now. I am not going to get sick anymore.”
“You can’t dig for clams until you get a shovel,” Debbie told him. “Do you want to see where I live? ”
They walked back past the general store and up a hill. There was a school. It also had an American flag out front. The house next door to the school was Debbie’s house.
“What does your father do?” Debbie asked.
“He’s a painter.”
“There are lots of painters here for the summer,” Debbie told him. “There is a famous painter who teaches them how to paint. His name is Mister Jay. Most of the painters were soldiers and sailors. Was your father a soldier?”
“Yes. He was a private. He said that is almost like being a pirate. That was a joke,” Richie said. “I thought so,” Debbie said.
Debbie pointed to the top of the hill. “That is the lighthouse. We can go there another day and sometimes the man will let us climb to the top.”
“What is it for?” Richie asked.
“It’s so boats don’t crash into the island when it is dark or foggy. I know where there is a big boat that crashed into the island. Want to see it?”
“Yes,” Richie yelled. “Yippee.” This was exciting. “Let’s go after lunch. I better get back home. My mother will wonder where I am.”
“Let’s meet at the general store after lunch,” Debbie said.
* * *
At lunch Richie told his mother and father the great news about the shipwreck. He told them he was going to explore it with his new friend Debbie.
“I know where it is,” Daddy told him. “I can go there with you.”
Richie didn’t like that. He was pretty sure Debbie wouldn’t be happy if a grown-up came. How could he talk Daddy out of coming? “What were you painting this morning?” he asked. “Waves on the rocks.”
“Are you finished painting the waves and rocks?”
“No, I have a lot more to do. I put turpentine rags over the painting, so the paint won’t dry before I get back.”
“Then you better not come with us to see the shipwreck. You don’t want the paint to dry.”
“I guess you’re right,” Daddy said.
“Aw,” Richie said, “I wish you could come. But I’ll tell you all about it,” as he ran out to meet Debbie. “That was a close call,” he thought.
After he had gone out, Daddy said to Mother, “He really didn’t want me to come, did he?”
“No,” she said. “Kids like to explore on their own. He’s already having a wonderful time. I’m glad he met a friend.”
Chapter 4: Lobsters
Debbie was waiting for Richie at the General Store. “Do you have a fish line?” she asked him.
“No. Do you have one.?”
“Sure. I’ll show you the kind you should get.” She asked the storekeeper to show them a furnished line. It was like four sticks that made a square, and it had string wrapped around it, and at the end of the string there was something made out of wood, and a piece of metal, and a hook. Richie knew what the hook was. “What are those other things? “he asked.
“The piece of wood is called a float, and it holds the hook from going all the way to the bottom. The piece of metal is called a sinker. It makes the hook go down where the fish are.”
“Then what happens?”
“You put a piece of a clam on the hook and drop it in the water. A fish nibbles on it, and that makes the float go up and down. You jerk on the string and the fish gets caught on the hook. Then you pull him up and bring it home and your mom can cook it so you can eat it.”
Debbie sure know a lot. “How old are you?” he asked.
“I’m six, “she told him.
That made him feel better. He was only four. He had plenty of time to learn all those things.
Debbie showed him the way to the shipwreck. It was as big as one of the cars on the train and was all rusted and broken into parts. “That’s the engine, way over there.”
“Who put it there? Richie asked.
“The waves.”
“That must have been a big storm.”
“It was.”
“Have you ever seen a storm on the Island?”
“Lots of times.”
“Do you think I can see one?”
“I don’t think so. They usually come in the winter.”
Richie was disappointed.
There were red things all around the ship. “What are those?” Richie asked.
“Those are lobster shells. They are left behind from lobster picnics after the people have eaten all the lobster meat.”
“Are they good?”
“Real good. Haven’t you ever eaten a lobster?”
Another new thing, Richie thought. “No. I never even heard of a lobster until you told me.”
“Well, you’ll eat them here. Almost every night.”
“I’m going to take a shell home to show my mother what a lobster is. I want to eat one.”
“I better get home now, Debbie said. “What do you want to do tomorrow?”
“I want to meet the boat. Mother says that our box will be on it, and it has all my toys and my binoculars.”
“You have your own binoculars?” Debbie asked. She was impressed.
Finally, Richie thought, something Debbie didn’t already have. “I’ll show you how to use them when it comes,” he said, as they walked home.
Chapter 5: The Ice Man
The next day a man came to the house before breakfast. He told Mother he was the Ice Man, “But my name is really Captain Fish.”
“How come there are so many captains here?” Richie asked.
“If you have your own boat, you are a captain.”
“Do you have a boat?”
“Yes. It’s a lobster boat. All the boats here are lobster boats. We catch lobsters in the winter on Ocean Island. All the other places catch lobsters in the summer.”
Captain Fish told Mother he was taking orders for ice from the new people. She would need ice for the ice box, because there were no refrigerators. Then he was going to the Ice Pond with his truck to pick up the ice for his customers.
“Is there ice on the pond?” Richie wanted to know. How could there be ice in the summer? It was too hot.
“There’s no ice now. We cut it from the pond in the winter and keep it in the Icehouse.”
“Can I see it?” Richie asked. “Can I, mom?”
“Yes, but aren’t you supposed to meet Debbie this morning?”
“Oh,” Captain Fish said. “That must be Debbie, the nurse’s daughter. She lives in the house by the school, and it’s on the way to Ice Pond. We can stop and see if she wants to come,” he told Richie’s mother.
“That sounds like it will be fun,” she said. “Come home for lunch.”
Debbie did want to come, and they walked down a dirt road that came to a pond, and next to the pond was a big house, and a truck. Captain Fish said, “That’s my truck. In the winter the ice here is as thick as, let’s see, as a four-year-old boy is tall.”
“That’s thick ice,” Richie said.
“We cut it into be blocks with a saw we call a buck saw, and then we grab it with iron clamps. That thing on the top of the icehouse is called a crane and it lifts the ice up and puts it in the Icehouse. Let’s go inside.”
It was very cold inside. In front of them was a wall of ice blocks that went to the ceiling. Captain Fish began to grab blocks of ice with something that had two hooks, and he put them on a piece of wood near the door. “We call that a skid,” he told Richie. When he had put one block of ice for each of his customers on the skid he counted them again. “I don’t want to have to come back to get more or bring any back,” he told Richie and Debbie.
Then he attached ropes to the skid, and he used the crane to lift the skid and the ice onto the back of his truck.
Richie said that the Icehouse was fun. Debbie asked if they could ride with Captain Fish when he delivered his ice. He said they could.
Richie told Captain Fish his binoculars were going to come in on the boat that afternoon.
“Binoculars will be a good thing to have,” Captain Fish told Richie. “Tell Richie about the Big Fire,” he said to Debbie.
“A long time ago,” she said, “there was a war, and all the men went away to fight in the war. They were soldiers and sailors.”
“It was called the Civil War,” Captain Fish said.
Richie was puzzled.
“You mean there have been lots of wars. I thought there was just the one Daddy was in.” Captain Fish laughed.
“Anyway,” Debbie said, “a fire started on that end of the Island,” and she pointed behind them as they rode in the truck. “It was a really big fire, and there were no men to fight it. It burned down the whole island, all the houses, even the Skinner House.”
“What’s the Skinner House?” Richie asked.
“That’s the hotel you passed to get to your house. Everyone on the Island, there were only women and children and old people, had to go out in boats to get away from the fire. There was nothing left.”
“That’s why we have to be careful not to start fires,” Captain Fish said.
Captain Fish was smoking a cigarette. “When we finish a cigarette, we have to put it out and put the butt back into the pack,” and he showed how he did it to Debbie and Richie. “When we go to the general store to buy more we have to turn in the butts. That way we all know none of us threw any of them on the ground where they could start a fire.”
It’s good that Mommy and Daddy don’t smoke, Richie thought, so they won’t start a fire. Daddy said that smoking was stupid, but he didn’t tell that to nice Captain Fish. It might make him feel bad.
“When you get your binoculars you can use them to look out for fires.,” Captain Fish told him.
“You want to?” Richie asked Debbie.
“Sure,” she said, “we will be fire watchers.”
Chapter 6: The Big Box Arrives
That afternoon the boat came in. And the Big Box was on it.
Captain Fish put the box on his truck and brought it to the house.
Daddy opened the box and there were Richie’s binoculars. He was very happy. He put the strap of the binoculars around his neck.
He ran to the back of the house. There was a ladder to the roof. Richie climbed the ladder and crawled to the top of the roof. He began looking for smoke. He didn’t see any.
But Captain Fish saw him.
“Come down from there,” he yelled. “You will fall.”
“I’m not afraid,” Richie yelled. “And I’m not going to fall.”
Captain Fish climbed up the ladder and told Richie to climb down to him and he carried Richie down the ladder.
“That’s so high up there even I was afraid,” Captain Fish told Richie.
Richie didn’t believe him. “If you are brave enough to go out on the Ocean you can’t be afraid of a little roof.”
“I know all about the Ocean, but I am still scared of it. So I am very careful. The Ocean and the roof are dangerous places, and you should be scared of dangerous places. But I need to go on the Ocean to catch lobsters. You don’t need to go on the roof.”
“But I wanted to make sure there were no fires,” Richie said.
“I have an idea,” Captain Fish said. “Go to the Skinner House and ask the lady at the desk if you can go to the Widow’s Walk to look out for fires.”
“What’s a Widow’s Walk?” Richie asked.
“The lady there will show you,” Captain Fish said.
Chapter 7: The Widow’s Walk
The next morning Debbie came to Richie’s house.
“Captain Fish said I should go to the Skinner House,” he told her, “and ask if I can go to the Widow’s Walk to look out for fires. Do you know what the Widow’s Walk is?”
“Yes,” Debbie said. “It’s little room on top of the roof of the Skinner House. It’s very high and you can see the whole Island from there.”
“But if it’s high it must be dangerous. Captain Fish said I shouldn’t go to dangerous places.”
“It’s not dangerous at all. You climb up stairs to get to it, and it has windows all around and there is no way out so you can’t fall. I’ve been there lots of times.”
Mother was listening. “That sounds like fun,” she said.
“Let’s go,” Richie yelled. “To the Widow’s Walk.”
At the Skinner House Debbie knew the lady at the desk. “This is Richie,” she said. “He wants to go to the Widow’s Walk to look out for fires.”
“All right,” the lady said. “You know the way, Debbie, so you take him up.”
Richie and Debbie walked up three flights of stairs. Debbie opened a door, and there were more stairs. They climbed up them and there was a little room with windows all around, just like Debbie had told him.
Debbie saw Captain Fish and his truck near the dock. She opened a little window and yelled down to him. Captain Fish looked up and saw them. He waved. Richie and Debbie waved back.
Debbie showed him where they could see the shipwreck on one end of the Island, and on the other end a big hill she said was called Black Head. That was where the Big Fire had started.
They looked through the binoculars, but there was no smoke anywhere.
After a while Debbie got tired of watching.
She said she was going to Richie’s house to see the baby.
Richie decided he would watch until lunch. He kept looking though the binoculars. He could see Captain Fish working on his boat that was next to the dock. On the other side of the Island he could see some men. He guessed that was Daddy and the other painters.
He kept looking.
Then he saw something. Way far away on Black Head.
He kept looking.
It was smoke.
He know what to do.
He went to the window and waved and yelled to Captain Fish.
“I see smoke,” he yelled.
“Where?” Captain Fish yelled back.
“On Black Head.”
Captain Fish jumped out of his boat. He had his own binoculars.
“I don’t see anything,” he yelled.
“Come up here,” Richie yelled.
A few minutes later Captain Fish climbed into the Widow’s Walk.
He looked through his binoculars at Black Head.
“You’re right,” he said to Richie, and he yelled through the window to the men working on the dock, “Fire on Burnt Head. Ring the bell.”
One of the men ran to the Church and began ringing the bell. Captain Fish climbed down and ran to the dock.
People from all over the Island were running to the dock. Richie saw his father and the other artists come running too. He climbed down to see what they were going to do.
Chapter 8: Indian Pumps
Richie heard Captain Fish tell everyone what to do.
He told them they had to go up to the lighthouse. He said there were Indian Pumps and shovels and pails there, he said., he said. Every man was to put on an Indian Pump and take a shovel and a pail. “Let’s go, men,” he yelled, and all the men ran up the hill to the lighthouse.
Mother and Debbie came running to the dock and saw Richie, who was also running to the Lighthouse. “Stop,” Mother yelled.
“But I have to get an Indian Pump and a shovel and a pail,” he said. “Captain Fish said we all had to.”
“He didn’t mean four-year-olds,” Mother told him.
Debbie said, “She’s right. We have to take care of the baby.”
Richie was very disappointed. He really wanted an Indian Pump, whatever that was. He loved Indians. He even had an Indian costume his father had made him. He had a hat with feathers on it and a bow and arrows in a leather quiver. And leather moccasins. He had even painted his face. And now only the grownups could play Indians. “No fair,” he thought.
“Can we go to the Widow’s Walk to watch?” he asked.
“I think that’s all right,” his mother said. “Just don’t leave the Skinner House. I have to get back to Bethy.”
Chapter 9: Fighting the Fire
From the Widow’s Walk they could see that all the men were at the lighthouse. They all put something on their backs and had shovels and pails. Then they began walking toward Black Head.
“They look like the soldiers marching on the Memorial Day parade,” Debbie said.
Richie remembered that his father had marched in a parade in his army uniform in the city just before they left.
“Do you know what an Indian Pump is?” he asked Debbie.
“No. I never heard of that before,” she said.
They couldn’t see what was happened on Black Head. But they could see the smoke.
But after a while they saw two men come back from the fire to the dock.
Debbie and Richie ran down to find out why they had come back.
The men were talking to the lady at the Skinner House. They told her they needed sandwiches and coffee and drinking water to bring to the men. The lady called the girls who worked at the Skinner House and they began making sandwiches and filling big bottles with coffee and water.
Richie asked the man what was happening at the fire.
He told them that the men were making what was called a fire break with their shovels and axes. That was like a dirt fence around the fire so it couldn’t break out.
“Did you see my Daddy there?”
“What does he look like?”
“He is a painter. He is tall and has glasses and his pants and shirt have paint all over.”
“Yes, he is there.”
“Is he all right?” Richie asked. “Does he have an Indian Pump?”
“Yes,” the man said.
Richie wanted to see an Indian Pump so bad he could hardly stand it.
The sandwiches and water and coffee were ready. The men put them on wagons and pulled them toward the fire.
Then they saw a big boat with white and red stripes. “That’s the Coast Guard boat,” the lady from Skinner House said. “It has a pump so the men can get water from the ocean to where they are fighting the fire. But the boat can’t get close to the fire because the sea is so rough, and the rocks are so dangerous.
Richie and Debbie saw men in blue uniforms take a big machine from the boat and put it on a wagon. Then they began running toward the fire. “That’s the pump,” the lady said.
“What’s a pump?” Richie whispered to Debbie. He was tired of not knowing anything.
“It puts water into a pipe,” she said. “I guess the men need water to put in their pails and throw on the fire.”
“Maybe they put the water in the Indian Pumps,” Richie said. But why was it an Indian Pump? He wished he was grown up so he could have an Indian Pump.
It was getting dark, so Debbie and Richie went home to have supper and go to bed.
Chapter 10: The Fire is Out
Daddy was gone all night. He was still gone the next morning. Mother was worried but said he could take care of himself.
Debbie and Richie went to the dock to see if there was any news. Just as they got there they heard people yelling and the bell ringing.
“The fire is out,” everyone was saying. Then the men all came marching down the hill to the dock. Richie saw his Daddy there and ran to him. “What happened?” he asked.
“Once the Coast Guard pump arrived we had plenty of water. We formed a bucket brigade to get the war to the fire.”
“What’s a bucket brigade?”
“The first man fills his bucket from the pump and passes it to the next man and then to the next man until the bucket gets to the fire. We put the water in our Indian Pumps and spray the fire.”
“Indian Pumps, Indian Pump, where are the Indian Pumps? And where are your feathers and moccasins and why didn’t you paint your faces like I do when I play Indians?”
Daddy took something off his back. It was a big tank with a hose attached to it. “This is an Indian Pump.”
Richie was very disappointed. It didn’t look like anything an Indian would have. “Why do you call it an Indian Pump?”
Daddy pointed to the letters on the pump. Richie couldn’t read, so Daddy said, “This word is ‘Indian.’ That is the name of the company that makes the pumps.”
Captain Fish was talking to all the men and women. He said that they had all done a great job and had saved the Island.
“And I want to say an especial thanks to the little boy who was the first to spot the fire and give the alarm.” He pointed to Richie and said, “That boy is a hero.” And everybody clapped.
But Richie still thought it was stupid to call that big shiny tank an Indian Pump. An Indian Pump should be made of leather like his arrow quiver, and the men who used it should paint their faces and wear feathers. Sometimes grownups really didn’t know anything. If he had been in charge they would have done things right!
