Shore Acres

Summary

A salt-stung inheritance cleaves two brothers on the wind-lashed Maine littoral: the elder, Nathaniel, surrenders both land and beloved to dutifully raise the revolutionary standard, leaving the farm and the beacon of Berry Light to his callow sibling Martin; a decade later, scarred by cannon-smoke and sleepless guilt, Nathaniel returns to tend the lamp that once guided him home. Into this bruised idyll glides Josiah Blake, a speculator who smells money in every pine-needle, whispering of subdivisions and summer cottages until Martin mortgages ancestral soil and, for good measure, pledges his luminous daughter Nell to Blake’s ledger. Nell’s pulse, however, beats for Sam Warner, a young saw-bones who dreams of prairie horizons wide enough to cauterize small-town spite. On the eve of their elopement Blake fans Martin’s jealousy into white-hot rage; Martin storms the lantern-room, weapon in fist, ready to douse the lamp and doom the fleeing lovers to reef and wrack. Nathaniel wrests back the firearm, ignites the great Fresnel lens, and in that single act of illumination redeems both bloodline and bay. Eighteen yuletides later, stockings sag by the hearth of the reclaimed homestead while a squalling infant—Nell and Sam’s—crowds Martin’s lap, the old man’s remorse washed clean by the soft, forgiving glow of a pine-knot fire.

Synopsis

Shore Acres was left to Nathaniel and Martin Berry by their mother. Nathaniel has taken care of his younger brother Martin, who was a child when their mother died, and deeded over his share of the farm to Martin and went to join the rebellion when he found that they both loved the same girl--and she seemed to show a preference toward Martin. On Nathaniel's return home he again took up his work on the farm, and also as custodian to what was known as Berry Light, the lighthouse off the coast of Maine. Martin, the younger brother, a good man at heart, but easily influenced, is approached by Josiah Blake to mortgage the farm, and with the proceeds to cut it up into building lots to be used as a summer colony. The many "air castles" that he builds in Martin's mind finally gain the latter's consent. Blake also tries to win Martin's daughter Helen, better known as Nell, and Martin, thinking it advantageous to have Blake in the family, gives his consent. Nell is in love with Sam Warner, a young physician of the town. Warner is thinking of going west to grow up with the country, and Helen pleads with him to take her along. She appeals to her uncle Nat, who has always looked upon her as his baby, and he advises her going with Sam. Blake suspects that an elopement is imminent and hints to Helen's father at Sam's departure, in a way that sets him to thinking and poisons his mind. Martin starts out to find his daughter. His first visit is to Sam's office, discovering the place dismantled, he now believes Blake's story and starts for the shore, gun in hand, intent on killing Sam. He gets there just in time to see the young couple embarking on Captain Ben Wilson's boat. He, by this time, has been wrought to such a state of mind that he would stop at nothing. He makes for the light house just as a storm is blowing up. As he enters the light house, he sees his brother Nathaniel about to fill the lamp and light it to guide the boats through safety during the storm. He points the gun at his brother and threatens to kill him if he attempts to light the lamp. There a fight ensues and Nathaniel gains possession of the gun, and rushes to the light house tower and lights the lamp. During this time the boat with Sam and Helen on has been tossing about on the rough waters. When the rays from the light house are seen by those on the boat, they are much relieved to find that they have miraculously escaped the reefs. There is a lapse of a year and a half. The picture shows Christmas Eve in the old homestead. Martin, who has always felt reproachful for his treatment towards Nell, is sitting at a table quietly thinking of the past, while the children are jumping around the room in happy anticipation of what Santa Claus is bringing them. Nat steals into the kitchen, sends the children to bed, and asks Martin to help him fill their stockings. Martin goes about it half-heartedly at first, but gradually enters into it with the holiday spirit. Nat then leaves the room and reappears with Nell, Sam, and the baby. Martin is overjoyed at the reunion.