A Lover in Homespun / And Other Stories

TORONTO: WILLIAM BRIGGS 29-33 Richmond St. West Montreal: C.W. COATES. Halifax: S.F. HUESTIS. Philadelphia: HENRY ALTEMUS. 1896
Entered, according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, by William Briggs, at the Department of Agriculture.
WHO HAS TAKEN SUCH A WARM AND LOVING INTEREST IN MY LITERARY ENDEAVORS, I DEDICATE MY BOOK OF CANADIAN STORIES.
Onesime Charest, farmer, of L'Orignal, was a happy man. As he drove through the quaint little French-Canadian village, on his way to the railway station, he was saluted by the villagers with much ceremony.
Everyone knew perfectly well just what it was that was taking farmer Charest to the station this beautiful hazy afternoon. Over a week had now elapsed since he received the letter from his son Zotique, in the United States, saying he would be home on September 10th.
Before the important communication had been in the village a day, it was common property, and had been read and re-read until almost every soul in the place knew it off by heart.
The wanderer's return was to be made more momentous by Madame Charest inviting a large number of guests to a party, to be given by her the evening he returned.
If these worthy people were in a joyous mood the night of the party, nature appeared equally so; for by the time the first hay-cart, with its burden of guests, drove up to the scene of the festivities, the moon, as though specially engaged to do duty on this honored occasion, stood right over farmer Charest's house, and with jovial countenance beamed into the faces of the arriving guests, and threw such a kindly light over the farmer's rough, nondescript garments as to make them look almost like good, soft broadcloth. It also paid flattering attention to Madame Charest, and so beautified her thin face and silvered her grey hair, as she stood in the door and welcomed the arrivals, as to make the neighbors affirm—and that in a manner that it would have been utterly useless to try and gainsay—that she looked far younger than she did ten years ago!