The Prince of the Village
by Bartin Barkhouse

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Life in the small Acadian village of Chezzetcook, Nova Scotia, in the early 1900s is a simple one. The children travel to the one-room schoolhouse each day while their parents work in the home or in the local brickerie. The men often find themselves working deep in the woods felling trees for months at a time, or on the ocean hoping to catch enough fish to support their families. No one has a lot of money, but the members of this community support one another through all of life’s ups and downs. Young Cecilia Roma has grown up in a nearby village, and watches as her fellow neighbours move to large cities in the United States, where jobs are plentiful and enticing. But there is someone who is keeping Cecilia tied to her roots—Gabriel de Bellefontaine, a young man two years her senior from a nearby village. Though few words have passed between the two of them, Gabriel finally gathers the courage to ask Cecilia on an outing. Their romance is fierce but fleeting. Cecilia’s parents force the couple apart, fearing that Cecilia’s honour and innocence are in jeopardy. Once in the provincial capital of Halifax, Cecilia realizes how strong and independent she can be. Life outside of Chezzetcook is not the scary place she once envisioned, but she must make the ultimate decision on whether a future with Gabriel is worth sacrificing.

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Bartin Barkhouse is the author of a children’s book titled Two Days in the Life of a Boy Called Te-Pet (2019) and has written several plays for the theatre.

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Bartin Barkhouse

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