of freedom, the local businessmenbuilders, suppliers and servicers— foresaw a falling off of their summer incomes as the visiting population was discouraged from enjoying itself, or even visiting. The Pines development was being nipped in the bud, and the reaction was part indignation and part derision, and, for the most part, an attitude of ignoring the whole thing.

The instigator of the sign is still anonymous although it is understood that someone approached the town officers individually for their casual approval of the project. No one really knows whose idea and execution the sign was, but it was indicative of the mentality behind it that the "i" and "e" were reversed in each repetitive misspelling of the word, "believe." One of the local business people who ran the bar and restaurant immediately erected signs of his own, advertising a spelling bee, the prize: a bikini and a magnum of champagne. And when darkness fell on what was already a dimly enlightened day, the ungracious sign fell with it and was last seen floating ignominiously in the brackish bay.

Except for the talk that followed the incident, the situation was closed, except for a rather dramatic kind of sequel or post script. The bar and restaurant had just been remodled with Tiffany-period glass decorations. There was a very pleasant, rather chic, and probably profitable opening, and the rest of the season looked encouraging for both the patrons and the owner-the one who had arranged the spelling bee. About five o'clock the next morning, the Pines was aglow with the tumultuous flames of the bar, the restaurant and two double-storied hotel buildings which, for a while, threatened the dry, combustable stands of pines and brush-

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oak as well as the Pines community itself. The fire pump did not work and the hand-cranked siren was inaudible. It all looked serious and beyond human help. But the first aid to arrive was from Cherry Grove from which volunteers came running down the length of the island through the brush and sand. many of them in bare feet. And as one Cherry Grover pointed out afterwards, "There we were breaking our backs lugging water out of the bay for the bucket line when I saw this Pines guy just standing there-watching! I asked him to give us a hand, and he says, 'But the fire's not going toward my house." Not towards his house, mind you. So I blew up. I says, 'It's not going toward your house?! Listen, mister. Do you know where all us boys are from? We're from Cherry Grove. If you Pines people weren't so damn busy putting up those damn signs and got a fire department to take care of your own fires, we wouldn't have to come down here and put it out for you!" "

The Pines has a Saturday afternoon fire drill now every weekend. The bar and restaurant were entirely rebuilt on top of the ashes in the astounding time of four weeks-out of cement, steel girders and glass walls. A special letter of gratitude and thanks was sent by the newly elected president from all the community officers of the Pines to the residents of Cherry Grove.

House-warmings and any other kinds of parties may be given if and when their hosts feel like it, which of course at the Pines is not often. Most of the houses, however, have large walk-in closets and on warm, sunny days, bikinis are often the usual attire among the more well-groomed physiques, even though they may have seen seventeen some years before Fire Islands Pines ever existed.