Scene 1: The Jessup House
Major Edward Jessup, coming home after a long day at the
Fort is greeted by his dog, King, and young daughter Sophia (Sof-eye-a). He could
hear his twin sons Henry and George having an argument inside about the newly-established African state of Zaire. Since they could only read
about it in
the Prescott Messenger, they thought it was supposed to be pronounced "Zare" (not Zay-eer).
Mother Ann runs in to break up the argument before the Major has a chance to open the door. "Pipe down,
boys. Don't be so ignernt. Why don't you get backuh the libary to study some lititcher?"
Just then, the butler, Dibble, opens the door and Major Jessup greets the assembled multitude. "Family, I have a message that Uncle James will be paying a
visit to Preskit. He has completed his posting in Clarendon, England and he's bringing his Dutch fianc�e Josephine VanKoughnett (pronounced
Van-Coog-a-nut because he wasn't so hot on pronouncing foreign names).
Maybe we can get him to fix the chimley while he's here."
Scene 2: On the streets of Preskit
Henry and George didn't much like the idea of
reading the lititcher at the libary so they figured they'd spend the afternoon at Kelly's Bay.
On the way, they went downstreet to pick up their friend, Russell Park.
"Hey, I wuz lookin' fer youse last Saredee. Where
jew fekofta?"
"Min'jer own beeswax!", Henry
shot back. Russell was fond of dogs and swimming. On hot summer
days, the boys would alternate between Kelly's Bay, the Power Docks and
The Quarry, backuh the WIndmill. Russell's dogs,
Prince and Duke would
follow them wherever they
went.
There weren't many girls of their age in town: Susan Hyde
already had a boyfriend; the Wood sisters, Linda and
Florence, didn't pay them much attention. The boys were
looking forward to next year when they would be old enough to hop the ferry to the taverns
at the 'Burg. If the rumours were true, the girls across the mighty St. Lawrence
would be even smarter, prettier and thinner than the Preskit girls.