and back to his family home. It means he will have to take a longer commute across the river, but he says he has always enjoyed the trip, and anyway, he can no longer stay in a house that is infested with vermin.

In the first few months his trips to school are as pleasant as they've always been. It becomes a bit more difficult when winter kicks in in December, but it is nothing compared to January and the most "severe [in South Carolina] cold spell since 1952. "For in that week I met the father of cold, the grand cold, the inquisitor of cold, and the pope of cold."

He struggles on until the school board send him a letter telling him that his travel expenses have simply become too expensive and they can only afford to pay for his gas on Mondays and Fridays. The rest he will have to pay himself.

After everything he has done for the school, Conroy is furious. It is not in his nature to just let it go, so he decides to confront the board during a school meeting. The chairman Piedmont decides not to come, but this works in Conroy's favor. He tells the two men there, Bennington and Sedgwick, that they hold no power and they are just saying what Piedmont told them to say. When Conroy attempts to leave the room in protest, they call him back and say, "I know where we can get cheaper gas."

Chapter 8 begins with Conrad deciding to move out of the cabin he has been renting on the island and back to the mainland, due to a mouse problem. The commute by boat is generally a very enjoyable experience for him, though he eventually has to contend with the freezing cold of winter and the dense fog that follows it.

While he comes to greatly enjoy his commute by boat, it causes tensions with the school board over the increase in fuel costs. They insist that they will only pay for the boat's fuel on Mondays and Fridays, a truly untenable position for Conrad. This issue is not the only administrative disagreement between him and the county; and, as he says, "It is hard to pinpoint accurately the precise moment when [he] lost favor."

After threatening to walk out of a meeting with two of his superiors, Conrad is able to reverse the decision on the boat funding, and he even gets approval to bring milk from the mainland to aid the island. However, in doing so, he "had earned the enmity of a man who would . . . not rest until the wolves cut [his] flanks from behind": Mr. Bennington.

In Chapter 8, Conroy leaves the house he is renting on the island and decides to commute to and from the mainland every day.  He describes the experience of crossing to the island by boat each morning - the amazing sense of peace and solitude of "being the only person in a vast stretch of water" when the weather is clement, and the trials of dealing with dense fog, turbulent winds and waves, ice, and rain when the weather is more capricious (Chapter 8).  Conroy's decision to commute leads to problems with the school board, which does not feel it should have to pay for his gas and the upkeep on his boat.  After a number of heated confrontations with boardmembers on this issue and others, Conroy reaches an uneasy truce with them; they will cover his expenses for now, but there are signs of further conflict to come.

In chapter nine of The Water is Wide, Pat notices that the boys enjoy playing basketball at school each day. To this end, he arranges to take them to a Harlem Globetrotters game when he discovers that they are coming to Charleston for a performance. Pat, Barbara, and Bernie work together to bring most of the boys to the arena, where they thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Pat, ever committed to teaching the boys about life beyond the island, brings in a number of his friends who are themselves interested in life on the island. This includes his sister, who spellbinds the children with numerous skits. Even among these sources of enjoyment, Pat reflects grimly on the tendency of the children to abuse animals, and their general indifference in the face of violence.

In Chapter 9, Conroy is amazed at the children's lack of familiarity with the world outside of Yamacraw after taking a group of boys to see the Harlem Globetrotters in Charleston.  To expand their knowledge of life beyond the island, he brings in friends to speak to the students and share their particular areas of expertise.  The speakers include Dick, a dentist from Boston, Conroy's sister Carol Ann, an aspiring actress who does such a good job presenting a scene from MacBeth that the children are convinced she is a real witch, and the students' all-time-favorite, Richie, who performs traditional folk and rock songs for the class and engages them in a session of rousing gospel singing.  At the end of the chapter, Conroy muses on the children's propensity for cruelty to animals and seeming callousness toward suffering, and the prevalence of violence in their individual family lives.

After being confined to the classroom during the winter months, Conroy renews his determination to expose the children to the outside world and prepare them for their eventual departure from Yamacraw.  He gets a sponsor and organizes a trip to Washington D.C., overcoming the fear and opposition of parents and going over the head of the principal straight to the superintendant of schools to get permission for the trip.  After weeks of preparation with the class, the trip goes well, even though the children are perhaps more impressed with the kind people they meet and the suburban neighborhoods they visit than the sights and landmarks they see.  On the way home, Conroy is astonished to discover that some of his students have never seen a two-lane highway with dotted lines separating vehicles going in opposite directions before, and realizes that the value of an experience cannot always be measured in a traditional way.

In Chapter 11, on a trip with the children where he hopes to teach them to swim, Conroy hears he is to be fired.  A passionate confrontation between the school board and Conroy's supporters results in him winning back his job.  After a few weeks, despite a desperate defense which includes a school boycott by Yamacraw families, a second attempt to oust him by Dr. Piedmont, the school superintendant, succeeds.

In Chapter 12, Conroy, reflecting on his year with the children,  understands that the reason for his firing goes beyond superficial questions about his use of county funds and his attendance record, and even transcends the animosity caused by his unconventional teaching methods and willingness to challenge and defy the authority of the educational system.  His dismissal is directly tied to the end of segregation in the South and the turmoil brought on by the change.  The story ends with a bittersweet farewell.  Conroy fears that despite his efforts he may have not helped the Yamacraw children much.  He is thankful for the beauty they showed him, and prays that they be well in the times ahead, and that "the river is good to them in the crossing."