Summer's Turning

By: Ruth Harnden

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Synopsis: Mark’s summer with his aunt, doing remedial reading while the rest of his family were away, could have been a dull one. But when he met Tony, Mark found himself doing a great deal more than reading. It was bad enough that Tony could do many things better than Mark--what made it worse was that Tony had a sharp tongue. But what really annoyed Mark was that Tony was a girl. Despite the fact that the two didn’t have much patience for each other in the beginning, their mutual attraction and fondness for the wonderful and wise old Sam brought them together for hours at a time, day after day. Sam--independent, uneducated yet discerning--lived on a house boat and spent his time mending and building canoes. Without preaching he helped Mark to realize a lot about both himself and his female rival, as well as giving him such practical information as how to build a canoe. It was Mark alone, however, who competently rescued Tony from an animal trap in which she had caught her foot. By the end of his stay, Mark gained confidence in his own abilities and Tony, too, matured and began to lose her need to compete and criticize. Best of all, a friendship evolved between the two.