A Simple Rustic Tale

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Dupont and Durand, two farmers, are near neighbors. The one has an only son, the other an only daughter, and the young people are engaged for marriage. It is nutting time, and while the lovers spend their Sundays in the woods, their fathers are playing cards and their mothers are chatting and gossiping. We see the Dupont family making a call on neighbor Durand, and watch with interest the meeting of the lovers. The latter soon leave the old folks to themselves, and while the women engage in conversation, the men are seen playing a game of cards. It is evidently a well-contested game, for both men are deeply absorbed in the issue. Suddenly Dupont jumps to his feet and seizes the cards in Durand's hand. Counting them, he shows that Durand holds one card too many, and then, shaking his fist angrily in his neighbor's face, he calls him a cheat and a knave and rushes from the room. The old ladies, happy in their cronying, are dismayed by the appearance on the scene of the angry Dupont, who, unceremoniously orders his wife to accompany him home and to sever friendly connections with the Durand family. Then he goes off to find the lovers, and interrupts their blissful reveries by a raucous command to his son to leave his sweetheart forever. And we see the timid youth shrink before his father and leave his promised bride to weep over the blight that has come to her happiness. But the lovers are not so easily parted. There are midnight and other meetings, at which they repledge themselves. Durand discovers them during one of these clandestine love feasts and gruffly bids young Dupont be off, while he raises his hand threateningly to his daughter as he orders her home. Love, however, still continues to find a way and places for meetings until the climax comes. That arrives when young Dupont comes home late one night, and his father, suspecting the cause, refuses him admittance and commands him to leave. The lovers, however are not friendless, for they have in their mothers staunch allies. Mother Durand has a ready wit and, knowing her husband better than he knows himself, she plans to bring reconciliation between the families. She counsels her son to disappear, and arranges a hiding place for him in an unused building on the farm, where she supplies him with food. One other knows of the youth's whereabouts, and that is his sweetheart. Now we see the elder Dupont moving around his farm and noting here and there, evidences of the work of the banished son. And we see the gnawing at his heart by the pained and sad expression on his face as he thinks of his absent boy. His melancholy grows daily, and although he is too proud to confess his condition to his wife, that knowing woman sees and understands just as well as he. One day he sits forlornly in the barnyard, deeply lost in thought, when his old neighbor Durand passes. The latter sympathizes with the sorrow of his old friend, but hesitates to let his presence be known. His better nature finally prevails and he offers his hand in friendship. The two men immediately become reconciled and they are soon joined by the wives and children all beaming with the joy of great happiness.