Without their parents, who had been gone no one knew where for years, the Sullivan boys grew up on their own. There were six of them - Stephen, the oldest, Bryson, Albert, Daniel, Shadrach, and Hugh, the youngest. They were, the islanders predicted, bound for no good.
Stephen began setting fires when he was in his mid-teens and after the post office burned down, he was arrested, charged with arson, and jailed. Released several years later, angry and vindictive and still an arsonist, he set fire to a church and was shot by police as he was running away. Bryson and Daniel were killed in a bar fight in St. John after they'd been caught cheating at poker. In the midst of a heated argument, Bryson had drawn a knife and threatened the other players, Daniel came to his aid and both died in the violent melee that followed. At sixteen, Albert married a local girl, at seventeen, he became a father and at nineteen when his son began to show a marked resemblance to a local fisherman rather then himself, he beat his young wife senseless and left her and the child for parts unknown.
With only Shad and Hugh left, the local Ladies Aid Society ( consisting of the spinster Haynes sisters, Miss Violet and Miss Victoria and Miss Swift from Westport who sometimes sat in when a tie breaking vote was called for ) decided that it was high time to step in and take a stand lest the family's name disappear entirely. The ladies met in the front porch of Miss Violet's and Miss Victoria's old home every other Sunday afternoon where, being former nurses at the old folks home on the mainland, they had cared for their daddy when at 90 some odd years, he had finally taken to his bed with the pnemonia that eventually killed him. And none too soon, Miss Violet would remind Miss Victoria whenever his name came up. Ira Haynes had not been known for his kindness to animals or people or his family and Miss Victoria would nod agreeably and say Pity you can't choose your kinfolk.
The influence of the Ladies Aid Society was not lost on the island residents. Haynes money had built the new post office ( Only the best brick, Miss Violet had instructed, she didn't care to have another unfortunate incident of arson ), funded books for the school, provided hurricane relief for as long as anyone could remember, and in the summer when she could find a doctor from the teaching hospital willing to work on the island for a few leisurely months, paid his salary as well as his room and board and supplies ( on the condition that he also make his services available to the island's animal population ). So when Miss Violet and Miss Victoria decided that Shad and Hugh must be taken on for their own welfare, island families united in support.
In due course, it was mandated that Hugh should aprentice himself to Mr. McIntyre - rumor had it that he was looking for help - and that Shad should be taken on as a veterinary assistant at the clinic in Kentville. In return, Miss Violet and Miss Victoria would subsidize their living expenses for the next year, an arrangement that could be renewable should the boys prove worthy of expectations.
Shad and Hugh, taken by surprise by this generosity and speechless by the expression of the sisters' faith in them, immediately and enthusiastically agreed.
Money, Miss Violet remarked, is like manure. It's no good unless you spread it around encouraging young things to grow.
That's from a play by Mr. Thornton Wilder, Miss Victoria said reverently, Mr. Wilder understands youth.
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