"How Kissing Was Discovered" is the second episode of Season 2 of Road to Avonlea and the 15th episode overall.
Summary[]
The Annual Cricket Match has everyone buzzing; even more so because Alec King is resident Cricket champion. However, the solidarity of the King family unit is threatened when young Felicity accidentally meets and develops a hopeless crush on the visiting team’s champion, the handsome young David Hawes.
Plot[]
The story starts with Felicity reading a serial romance story in a magazine and completely ignoring Sara and Cecily, who want to play with her.
Great-Aunt Eliza Ward arrives for a visit to the King family. She is extremely vocal with her opinions of the entire family, and Alec learns with trepidation that the last family visit she made to their cousin lasted eight months!
Felix and Sara are excited about a cricket game Alec is playing the next day. They're disgusted to learn Felicity isn't planning on coming to the game...she says cricket is monotonous.
Felicity goes off with her magazine to read in the tall grass. A young man on a horse comes along and nearly runs her down because he doesn't see her. He introduces himself to Felicity as David Hawes and tells her he's playing in the cricket match the next day. Felicity is smitten with the young man and hurries home to announce how excited she is about the cricket match!
Meanwhile, Felix and Sara have gone fishing, grumbling about Felicity acting all grown-up all of a sudden. When they get to the fishing hole, they're surprised to find a lanky teenage boy already fishing there. He introduces himself as Gus Pike and shows them he can attract fish by playing his fiddle to them. Felix and Sara invite him over to the King house to meet their family.
Back at the house, Felicity is trying out an elaborate updo and writing in her diary. She's gone head over heels for David Hawes. She won't let Cecily in their room.
Felix and Sara introduce Gus to Alec, and Alec offers him a place to stay in the King barn until he can get work at the fish cannery nearby. Then Felix and Sara go to the house and find Cecily crying about Felicity not letting her in. They decide to spy on Felicity by climbing up to her window with a ladder.
Felicity's diary is lying on the windowsill, and Felix grabs it and starts reading aloud from it. Felicity hears him and chases him and Sara, trying to get the diary back. They end up where Alec is working with Andrew and Gus Pike. Felicity gets the diary back, but she's furious with Felix and Sara.
Sara comes to Felicity and apologizes for the whole thing. Felicity says "Children will be children!" She asks Sara to advise her about what dress to wear to the cricket match.
The next day, Felicity is unhappy with the dress she chose because she says it makes her look thirteen. Alec says, "You are thirteen!" He can't seem to get along with any of the women in the family that morning.
At the cricket match, Felicity keeps cheering for the wrong team...the one David Hawes is on. However, Alec's team wins when he scores six points right at the end of the game. Felix is incredibly proud of his father.
Felicity is desperate to talk to David Hawes again. Sara comes up with a plan that ends with Felicity wiping spilled tea off David Hawes's shirt. She is convinced David finds her fascinating and wants to go to the dance that evening at the White Sands Hotel to see him again.
At home, Felicity asks her mother if she can go to the dance. Janet says she'll ask Alec. Alec says certainly not. Janet is feeling incredibly tired and weak that day and wonders what's wrong with her. Aunt Eliza has a theory about Janet's not feeling well, but she doesn't say what it is.
Thinking she'll get to go to the dance, Felicity makes Sara practice dancing with her in the barn. Gus Pike comes in and helps the girls practice by playing his fiddle.
Felicity is upset to learn that her father won't let her go to the dance. She decides to run away and go to it, saying she'll just return David Hawes's handkerchief (which she still has from that afternoon) and come home. Gus Pike says he'll go with her to keep her safe. Sara thinks this whole thing is a terrible idea.
Aunt Eliza says something that makes Alec ask where Felicity is, and it doesn't take long for him to figure out she's run away to the dance. He goes after her.
At the dance, Gus stands guard outside as Felicity goes in to return the handkerchief. She hopes she'll get kissed, too. She doesn't have any luck talking to David Hawes at first, but at length he comes up to her and starts talking about cricket with her.
Alec comes in and looks for Felicity. Gus sees him and tries to signal to Felicity that her father has come. She tries to climb up a trellis to get away, but the trellis breaks and David Hawes catches her right as her father approaches.
Felicity is horribly embarrassed about the whole incident because everyone laughed at her. She says she'll never live it down.
The next day, Sara tells Alec she doesn't want to grow up if it means being in tears all the time. Alec says he'll remind her of that in a couple years.
Janet has been feeling horribly tired again, and Aunt Eliza finally puts forward her diagnosis: Janet is pregnant!
Gus Pike leaves to find work at the cannery and consoles Felicity about David Hawes and the kiss she never got. Just as he goes out the door, he kisses her, leaving her astonished and happy.
Alec and Janet call all the kids inside to tell them about the new baby coming. Felicity tells Sara she thinks they haven't seen the last of Gus Pike.
Cast[]
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Main cast
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Recurring cast
Guest cast
Co-starring
Stunts
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Quotes[]
Felicity King: Oh, cricket is simply ripping! Watching it is my most favorite pastime. I wouldn't miss it for anything!
Great-Aunt Eliza: You'll raise the dead, dear child! I am still of the living!
Felix King: Shh! From this point on, you can't make any noise. The fish here have ears. They're very smart.
Gus Pike: I've got me a special bait, all right!
Alec King: I'm not as old as you and Felix think I am.
Gus: Never say no...brings bad luck!
Felicity: (in her diary) Will this summer end without my being kissed?
Felix: (reading Felicity's diary) Willll this summer end without myyyy being kissed?
Felix: Oh, Gus! Meet my sister--or should I say, my peerless flower Felicity?
Great-Aunt Eliza: Empty vessels make the most noise.
Felix: Looks like our peerless flower is a peerless nuisance!
Great-Aunt Eliza: Yes, Alec, it's nice to know that you're good at something!
Sara Stanley: I don't want to grow up if it means being in tears all the time. It's such a waste of energy!
Alec: Look, the way she acted today is not perfectly normal for people from my family--maybe it is for you Wards!
Alec: Let's not be coy, Janet. Everyone knows you pursued me like a terrier!
Felicity: (to Gus) Beneath your vagabond's clothing beats the heart of a gentleman.
Gus: Better give him back his handkerchief and git, or both our names will be mud!
Gus: I kissed my dog...when I had one!
Cecily King: Is it a lie if I don't answer?
Great-Aunt Eliza: Cousin Myrtle's husband left her too, and she hasn't had a sulky fit since!
Gus: If you ain't intendin' on givin' him his nose-wipe, you'd best be gettin' home.
Gus: I promised to keep her safe, like a gentleman oughtta.
Felix: What's it like living on your own?
Gus: Lonely.
Janet King: Not bad for an old couple, eh?
Gus: Still pinin' over that milk-fed toff?
Felicity: Gus Pike, how dare you!
Gus: Better than kissin' my dog!
Behind the scenes[]
- The episode shares its title with Chapter 18 of The Story Girl, while the character of Gus Pike is inspired by Chapter 3 of Chronicles of Avonlea, "Each In His Own Tongue."
Gallery[]
| Anne of Green Gables Wiki has 4 images from How Kissing Was Discovered (view category). |
Videos[]
External links[]
"How Kissing Was Discovered" at the Internet Movie Database- "How Kissing Was Discovered" at L.M. Montgomery Online
"How Kissing Was Discovered" at The Magic Lantern Road to Avonlea Guide