Lizzie Bright And The Buckminster Boy

Lizzie starts to come every day to hear Turner play for Mrs. Cobb, who comes to tolerate Lizzie over time. Summer turns to autumn, and Turner begins taking lessons at home with his father instead of going to the Phippsburg school. One day when he goes to play for Mrs. Cobb, he notices that Mrs. Hurd’s unconventionally colored shutters and door have been painted a more traditional green. He investigates and discovers that Mrs. Hurd doesn’t live in her house anymore. He asks his parents what happened, and his father tells him that Mrs. Hurd’s family has removed her to a psychiatric hospital for those suspected of having mental health conditions. Turner’s mother is upset about Mrs. Hurd’s removal and insinuates that her husband played a role in it.

When his father gives him an afternoon off from his studies, Turner goes down to the shore to try and find Lizzie. Instead, he discovers that the Tripps are leaving Malaga on a floating houseboat, while the rest of the island community bids them farewell. Turner is saddened by the family’s departure, which reminds him that the future of Malaga’s residents—including Lizzie and her grandfather—remains very much in doubt. Turner calls to Lizzie from across the bay, but she seems upset to see him and runs off.

Shortly after the Tripps leave, they report their forcible eviction to a newspaper in Portland, Maine. Mr. Stonecrop is irritated by the unflattering perspective of Phippsburg implied by the story and demands that Reverend Buckminster write to the state’s governor to call for the official separation of Phippsburg from Malaga Island. Reverend Buckminster agrees to do so.

Turner is surprised that afternoon, when his father substitutes the religious reading he assigns to Turner with Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. The book is considered controversial because some of Darwin’s scientific theories, including those of biological evolution, undermined traditional religious thought of the time.

Exhilarated by Darwin’s ideas, Turner finishes the book in a matter of days and is eager to discuss it with Lizzie. However, he discovers that she has disappeared—she stops showing up at Mrs. Cobb’s, and Turner is afraid that she and her grandfather have left the island like the Tripps did. Mrs. Cobb tells Turner that she has come to like Lizzie and urges him to find out what’s happened to her. Turner rushes out and finds Lizzie clamming on the shore. He can tell she’s upset, and she tells him that her grandfather is sick, but that the townspeople continue to insist that they move off the island anyway. Appalled, Turner goes back with her to the island and visits Lizzie’s grandfather, whose condition further enrages him about the islanders’ plight. When he returns, he plays baseball in the town’s last game of the season, surprising the town with his mastery of the distinctive Phippsburg pitching style. Turner deliberately doesn’t swing at the last pitch, as a protest against the unfairness of the town.

Later that night, Turner goes to Mrs. Hurd’s house and is surprised to find Willis, Mrs. Hurd’s grandson, painting her house shutters and door in their original colors, despite his father’s desire to sell the house and evict his grandmother. Turner helps Willis and the two form a tentative truce in their tense relationship.