The Hopeless Dawn

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Two stalwart young fishermen, Al and Rob, brothers, have been daily companions for years, in work and play. They are orphans and live with their sister, Meg. They all live happily together until one day when joyous Jo, a coquette, warms the hearts of both brothers with the rosy radiance of her presence. Jo is a happy, careless girl, and coquettishly consciously allows both brothers to make love to her, neither knowing the infatuation of the other. One night she agrees, separately, to meet both. Rob, seeking her out earlier than she had expected, catches his brother Al in the act of kissing her. Thereupon the young men quarrel and from that moment doubt; all the bitter enmity of jealousy takes possession of their souls. The next morning, as usual, they start out to their fishing, but they have hardly dropped their oars and reached deep soundings before their quarrel renews. The brothers fight fiercely and fall overboard in the struggle and are drowned in each other's arms. Poor Meg, who has observed the beginning of the quarrel at home, knowing her brothers as she sees their hatred deepen, has grave doubts as to the consequences. She scorns the heartless Jo, who assays to laugh off her seeming idle fears. Then the fatal day comes, drags on and night comes, and Meg's grief cannot be sustained in silence. She overcomes her prejudice to Jo, and confides to her the depth of her fears. Then the two watch anxiously through the night. In the morning they see the two men, the forms of the brothers locked in each other's arms, cast like flotsam and jetsam in the tides that ebb along the rocks of the shore. Meg's grief brings so forcibly to Jo her own culpability that she loses her mind.