The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-22


 It's simple loves that made Already famed
 in song and story.
 "rhe Harvester is builded upon incl dents in the picturesque career of Jean | Richepln which he wove Into the French
 play, "Le Chemineau.n The harvester is
 a wandering Gypsy-a youth in whose veins courses the untameable blood of his
 ancestors. His very being is brimming
 over with the joy of life on his lips there is always q song; merry laughter be-
 tokens his coming and the varying moods
 of nature herself are reflected in his
 face Always he. feels the strange wan
 derlust-the call to the road, left him
 as an inheritance. He would be away
 to the bold, free existence of a wanderer,
 untrammelled by home ties or steady em- ployment, as free as a bird in air and as
 irresponsible. Life by the fireside would be to him like confinement in prison.
 Not for him are the ties that bind love
 and friendship would hamper his move
 ments, bed would rk his strong limbs
 and contentment, save in drifting wher-
 ever fancy dictated, would be to him
 worse than death
 
 ed into the little village of Dominique
 in French Canada about the year 1850. Taking service under the seigneur of the
 village, the Gypsy makes work a pastlme
 by the joy of his songs he wins the love of Tonette peasant girl, and is of- fered a home and competence by the admiring seigneur who appreciates his strength in the field But the Gypsy taint will not out. In reach of all that
 most men hold dear the old longing over |. comes him, no longer to be resiste1. The l adventure of the road, the fields and the
 woods strs his heart and with last passionate embrace he is away leaving Toinette, the seigneur, fortune-all be- hind.
 Eighteen years elapse. Toinette has welded Franscos, a fellow workman of the harvester. She has a son-the son os the harvester-and graved on her
 memory is the laughing countenance of her gypsy lover, although she is faith full in her trust as the wife of Frans- co.'s. Trouble overtakes the little fam fly. The boy. Tony, falls in love with the seigneurs daughter and is repulsed by her father, grown into a miserly old wretch with a heart of flint He knows tho secret of Toinettes life and spurns the advances of her son. Franscois aged. and wrecked by illness sits in his chair
 on the brink of the grave Tony, hound ec by the seigneur and refused the hand of his sweetheart. wanders about the village d.straught his mind benumbed by
 liquor and his strength departed The little farm is neglected trouble and want stare Toinette in the face.
 But one day while two worthies take
 their wine before the village inn, recall
 ing the time when they labored in the field with the harvester, his merry song
 is heard again on the highway. The gypsy has come back to Dominique after long years of wandering. He Is bearded | now and grown older but his jest is as merry as ever, laughter falls lightly from his lips and his song rings out as | Of old. Confronted by familiar faces l and familiar scenes. the gypsy hearkens back to his early love. which has never been obliterated from his heart He hears the pitiful story of Toinette. Frans- cois and the two lovers. he learns of the seigneur's pitiless attitude and the un- expected news that he is a father quiets for a while the wander lust in his blood The harvester meets his son and Toi- nette before the village inn. He deter
 mines that he will tarry in Dominique
 until he has brought back happiness to
 those he loves. He plays the supersti- tious fears of the seigneur until the old scoundrei consents to the marriage of
 his daughter to Tony The gypsy drives