Misty of Chincoteague

Grandpa Beebe finds Paul and Maureen and scolds Paul for playing with the ship’s bone, the long piece of wood he is still holding. They ask if the story about the Spanish galleon is true, and Grandpa assures them that it is despite what the people on the mainland say. He says it does not matter if it’s a legend: “‘Facts is fine, far as they go,’ he said, ‘but they’re like water bugs skipping atop the water. Legends, no—they go deep down and bring up the heart of a story’” (34). Grandpa continues, saying that both Indigenous people and white people have tried to live on the island but always decide it is best left to the ponies. He mocks the people who consider themselves the First Families of Virginia, saying that the horses are the true first family.

He talks about the first white person to try to tame an Assateague pony. Many years before, a boy captured a mare that looked a lot like the Phantom, took her to Chincoteague, and tried to hook her to a plow. Paul and Maureen ask if the taming worked, but Grandpa laughs, saying the pony, still hooked to her reins, broke free as soon as she could and swam back to the island.

Grandpa says he doesn’t have time for more questions; he has to get back to Chincoteague to help Grandma prepare for a party the next day. Before they go, though, he agrees to tell his grandchildren about the origins of Pony Penning Day. In the past, people from Chincoteague celebrated the end of planting season by going to Assateague to round up the ponies for fun and to try to ride them. Over time, as the pony population expanded, people began herding them through the water to Chincoteague and eventually started selling some of the colts to visitors. This became a fundraising opportunity for the Chincoteague Fire Department and evolved into the yearly Pony Penning Day.

When Paul and Maureen get back to Chincoteague, they immediately set to work on a plan for how to get the Phantom. First, they need to raise $100 to pay for the mare in the event that she is actually captured. Grandpa owns a horse ranch and usually sells the colts as soon as they are old enough to leave their mothers. Paul and Maureen suspect that if they train the colts to walk on lead and other basic tasks before they are sold, the buyers will pay more for them. Grandpa and Grandma agree, and Grandpa says he will give the children the extra money he gets from any colt they are able to gentle. Although he wants to know why they need the money, Grandma persuades him to agree anyway, telling him that it is probably a secret.

For the next four months, Paul and Maureen train colts, catch crabs, gather oysters, and dig for clams to sell. They learn to walk slowly through the shallow water wearing flannel moccasins so they can feel the clams with their feet. Paul becomes an expert; he can pull the clams out of the sand entirely with his foot. Maureen can’t figure out how to do this, but she brings a rake and fashions a floating basket out of canvas and an old inner tube. Their hard work pays off, and eventually they have $100 stuffed into an old tobacco can.

Once they have the money, they ask Grandpa to rent an empty pony stall. He still doesn’t know about the Phantom and jokes that Paul must be planning to sleep in the stall himself. Paul blurts out the plan—the stall is for the Phantom, which he and Maureen plan to buy. Grandpa is skeptical and wonders why they can’t ride one of the many horses he already has. Grandpa warns Paul that the Phantom is impossible to catch, saying that she is barely a horse but a force of nature like the “wind.” Paul insists that they knew the Phantom would be theirs as soon as they saw her on Assateague, and eventually Grandpa agrees to let them use the stall. They immediately start preparing the stall for the Phantom’s arrival. They build a manger, clean the stall, bring in fresh sand, build a water trough, and make a halter out of “wickie,” a long strand of briar root they believe will be more comfortable than rope.

The night before Pony Penning Day arrives at the end of July, Paul is nervous but ready to go. He worries that the men building the pony pens have not made fences strong enough to hold the Phantom. Maureen agrees to do his chores so he can make sure the pens are sturdy. She says she will fill the stall with sea grass and marsh grass so the Phantom has a comfortable bed and familiar food; Grandma has given her some carrots and rutabagas to entice the horse to eat. Grandpa surprises Paul with a (slightly squashed) candy bar to help calm his nerves.

On the morning of the event, Paul jumps out of bed in excitement. He feels like an adult when he comes downstairs to find Grandma cooking ham and coffee for him, but he is too anxious to eat. Maureen and Grandpa help him finish his food as he runs out the door to find Watch Eyes, the white-eyed pony he will ride to Assateague. Maureen runs behind him, telling him she will meet him at Old Dominion Point after the event. Grandpa reminds him that no matter what, he needs to obey the leader of his roundup team.

As the sun rises, Paul rides to the shore, looking at all the places where he and Maureen have worked to raise money for the Phantom. Other people join him on the road, and one man mocks him in front of the other adults, causing Paul to blush. After the riders gather on the ferry to Assateague, the leader, Wyle Maddox, splits them into three groups. Paul is assigned to the eastern group, with Wyle and a boy named Kim Horsepepper. Paul watches the birds of Assateague rise and fly away as the men shout, and he worries that they will warn the ponies of their arrival.

The group begins to ride east across the island when Wyle’s horse suddenly rears, and a group of wild ponies appears, crashing through the woods to escape the herders. Wyle, Kim, and Paul gallop after the horses, driving them toward Tom’s Point, where they will enter the water to swim to Chincoteague. Paul is furious when Wyle directs him to chase a slow horse that has veered off in a different direction; he is there to catch the Phantom, not track down a straggler. He remembers Grandpa’s words, though, and decides that finding the stray pony is the best way to prove himself to the men. He rides until eventually he sees movement in the distance and realizes it is a tiny colt, too young and slow to keep up with the herd. Then he sees the colt’s mother. She has a copper coat and a white marking in the shape of a map—the Phantom. Paul can’t believe his luck and decides in the moment that he will buy both horses; he can’t imagine separating the baby from its mother. Paul wonders how he will drive the Phantom and the colt back to Tom’s Point; he was riding so fast that he has no idea where he is. Just then, the Pied Piper’s loud cries carry through the woods, and the Phantom sets off in his direction, looking for the protection of her herd. Paul doesn’t have to drive the horses; they will lead him exactly where he needs them to be.

The men gather all of the wild horses from Assateague at Tom’s Point. The horses are tired, and the sweet grass that grows there distracts them from trying to escape. The men relax as they wait for low tide and the next step in the roundup: swimming the horses across the channel to the pens on Chincoteague. Suddenly, Paul, the Phantom, and her colt run out of the forest. The other riders cannot believe their eyes as the Phantom joins the other horses. After two years of grown men trying to round her up with no luck, she has been caught by a young boy. The horses also seem shocked, and they stop grazing all at once to watch as the Pied Piper greets the Phantom.

The men congratulate Paul and finally seem to welcome him as a fully-fledged roundup man. They laugh and joke with him and speculate about whether the Phantom’s baby prevented her from a quick escape. Paul eats Grandpa’s candy bar to fit in with the men, who are all eating snacks and chewing tobacco, but he is distracted by the Phantom and her baby. He gazes at the colt in wonder, admiring her silky coat. A name—Misty—pops into his mind because when he first saw her, he thought she was only a spray of sea mist. He refuses to take his eyes off of the Phantom and Misty, thinking that they might disappear into the mist if he does.

Across the channel, a crowd gathers to watch the horses swim across. Paul asks if he can swim along on Watch Eyes to keep an eye on the Phantom, but Wyle says no. Watch Eyes is too tired, he explains, and the boatmen always take the job of guiding the horses across the water. When the tide gets to its lowest point, the roundup men spring into action, herding the horses toward the water. As the herd enters the water, Kim approaches Paul on the riders’ boat and reassures him that the Phantom cannot turn back once she is in the water, but he is mistaken.