Posted by Ed Kiser on December 05, 2004 at 05:41:35 from 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.
In WINTER HOLIDAY -
"The trouble is," said Captain Flint, "that in these days everything belongs to someone, even the North Pole."
There seems to be a rather strong tendancy to ignore the above obserservation in so many situations.
They camp in various places. They build a fire as part of that campsite. They gather firewood for the fire. Perhaps their firewood was just dead branches lying about, and their making use of that may have really been of help in that it cleaned up the area, but as little value such deadwood may have been, it still is some else's property.
In PP, there was a bit of negotiation between adults when Mrs. Blackett did drive Rattletrap over to see Mrs. Tyson, but as to the nature and extent of that agreement, we, seeing the event from the perspective of the children, are not aware of the details they agreed to. It is not clear to me that Mrs. Tyson owned the area they were going to do the prospecting in. It seemed only to concern their using Mrs. Tyson's pump for water, and their camping there near the house in the orchard, and that she would be cooking for them - whether they wanted that or not.
The only objection seemed to be from Mrs. Tyson, and that was based on her fear that the fire would somehow be the cause of a major fire causing distruction on a large scale.
Even for the making of the charcoal in PP, there was chopping and sawing of wood. There was the occasional chopping to make a pole for a variety of reasons, such as to hold the STAKED OUT CLAIM in the gulch, or in SD, to make a stretcher for bringing Roger home.
Somebody owned those trees. Somebody's property was being chopped down.
Then the ultimate ignoring of property rights - they began mining operations in the gulch to extract what they thought was gold, but turned out to be copper. No matter what was extracted, that ore belonged to the owner of the property, not these squatters that just moved in and took over the mine.
In PM, when they decided to shift to the DOGS' HOME, there was some apprehension about that, in that it seemed that someone may have been USING the place, but even there, it was not a question of whose property it was, no consideration to asking the OWNER if they may use the hut for a few weeks. Jacky appeared to be the most recent USER, but that hardly makes him the OWNER.
At least, some negotiations were done with the owners of the NORTH POLE in WH, as Captain Flint had to get the key to the place.
In SW, they made plans to camp on the island there. After they were unloaded, Daddy went to the farmer in the kraal, to let them know the campers were there, but it did not seem to be so much to get permission, as it was to simply let the farmer know "we're here" and to ask about a source of water. For once, they did not bother the local natives with asking for their daily milk supply, but were contented with tinned milk.
In WH, they built the igloo on some else's property, with no apparent permission being involved, at least, not withing the scope of the reader's awareness. Part of the igloo had apparently already existed, but they did make their own modifications to someone else's property.
On the other hand, in WH, they did at least have some reservations about entering the houseboat, but reasoned that it was Peggy's uncle, and in a round-about way, thus they got permission if not from the owner himself, but from his niece. This getting around the ownership problem was also handled by having Peggy, as the owner's representative, be the one to dip into the larder and make use of the foods that Captain Flint had stashed there.
In CC and BS, their adventures took place either on a boat, or they lived at home. The Death and Glory was a boat that was owned by the three, or at least, it seemed that way, so their "camping" out in that boat was not a problem with owner's permission. Their away from home adventures were on public waterways and so did not involve camping on some one else's property.
I grew up on a farm, and I have no doubt as to my father's reaction if he heard of some strangers putting up a tent up in one of our fields, and chopping down some of our trees. The local sheriff would have been involved not only in eviction, but also in suit for property damages.
Or is this lack of regard for property owner's rights simply a simplification, that such is of concern only to the adults and not that of their children. It may be that there were the legal negotiations going on among the adults, but not mentioned in the stories as being not a part of the children's world, as they saw it.
We did not "see" the conversation between Mrs. Walker and the Jacksons of Holly Howe that resulted in the children being permitted to make use of the Swallow. It was as if it "belonged" to the four Swallows, where in reality it belonged to the Jacksons. This ownership of the Swallow was not a problem in PD and ML, as it was a made up adventure anyway, so they made free use of the
Swallow in their across the ocean adventure.
The nice thing about getting into these stories which are written from the children's point of view, is that all that legal agreement, rent paying, and who gets permission to do what, is not a part of their world, so does not come into the story to clutter it with legal matters. We can get on with the fun, and enjoy those care-free days of our youth, all over again.
So as to who actually owns Wild Cat Island, the Swallowdale valley, the gulch on High Topps, the Dogs' Home, and the igloo - it does not matter to our childhood friends - so it really does not matter to us who from time to time forget they are children, and start worrying about adult aspects of their fun.
Now, for our children to have Ransomish adventures, we have to be adult, and make the arrangements, and get permission and make sure nobody's rights are being violated. But we don't have to tell the kids what hoops we have to jump through so they can go raise that tent. Let them have the fun that we had, as we had our fun with those childhood friends of ours, the Swallows, the Amazons, and the D's...
Ed Kiser, South Florida