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man who said he believes the law can regulate morality and make upstanding citizens out of everybody.”
    â€œHis name is Volstead, and that’s right, I do agree with him. If people acted decent and nobody drank, this country would be a whole lot better off.”
    He looked at me a long time. Finally he said, “You mean, if everybody was as perfect as you, this country would be a whole lot better off.”
    â€œI didn’t say that.”
    â€œNo, but that’s what you meant.” He sighed, turned around on the seat, and took up the oars. “You’ve got a lot to learn about being human, missy,” he concluded.
    My mouth dropped open. How dare he admonish me when the law was on my side? I was glad he had turned his back to me again, because that way he couldn’t see my tears of frustration as we rowed toward home.

Chapter 9

    I climbed the stairs to my room with leaden feet, feeling as though my heart had cracked in two. In the short time I was on the river with Jones, the luster of Marryat Island had begun to tarnish. Something was amiss in Paradise. St. Paul was the devil’s playground, and I’d left it for a safe place, but the serpent had found its way even here.
    Passing by Mother and Daddy’s door, I decided to knock and see if they were in for the night. They were. They sat in the room’s two overstuffed chairs, drinking tall glasses of iced tea. Great Expectations was open facedown on the table between them.
    â€œGoing to bed, darling?” Daddy asked.
    â€œSoon, I guess.”
    Mother gave me that knowing look. “What’s the matter, Eve?”
    I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I just found out something terrible.”
    â€œWhat is it?” Daddy asked, leaning forward in his chair.Deep furrows cut across his forehead as he gazed up at me with concern.
    â€œI found out . . .” I paused and squeezed my hands together in front of me, “there are stills all over the place around here. People are making moonshine and selling it down the river.”
    Mother and Daddy were quiet for a long moment. Finally Daddy said, “Well, that comes as no surprise, does it?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” I cried, my voice climbing a notch. “Did you know about it before we came here?”
    â€œI think we just assumed . . .” Daddy shrugged. His face relaxed as he leaned back in the chair. “People are making their own liquor all over the country. They have been for years. Even more so since Prohibition started, you know.”
    â€œBut I didn’t think . . .” I squeezed my hands till my knuckles hurt.
    â€œWhat, darling?”
    â€œI thought it would be different here.”
    â€œWhy would things be any different here?”
    â€œWell, because . . . because . . .” How to explain? I thought it would be different because I wanted it to be different. I didn’t want to be afraid, like I had been in St. Paul.
    Mother must have seen the fear in my eyes. “Nothing bad is going to happen here at the lodge, Eve,” she said gently.
    I looked at her and nodded my reluctant agreement. Surely Mother was right. Surely here we wouldn’t see someone mowed down on the sidewalk in front of us, like the man who haunted my dreams. So there were moonshiners moving their goods on the river, but at least there weren’t hordes of gangsters killing each other, or robbing banks, or kidnapping the wealthy for exorbitant ransoms.
    â€œDaddy?” I said.
    â€œYes, Eve?”
    â€œWhy can’t people just obey the law? Why can’t they just be good?”
    Daddy thought a moment. “Because there’s something deep inside that won’t let them, darling.”
    I shook my head. “But we’re good. We don’t break the law. It’s not that hard.”
    â€œWell . . .” Daddy paused. He rubbed the side of his