Thank you my boy, good job!
[♪]
Felix King.
Step lively, Felix.
The carriage from the harbour station will be here any moment.
I've been meaning to tell you how pleased
I am at your performance here of late.
You've got a real feel for the hospitality business.
Thank you, sir.
Now, a very important guest is arriving today from Boston.
Mr. Samuel Boddin.
The Samuel Boddin?
The big retailer who...
who clothes nearly half the
North American continent, yes, that Samuel Boddin.
And I want you in particular to take
especially good care of him.
You can count on me, sir.
I've had a smoother ride in an ox cart...
May I help you, sir? - Don't touch that.
I'll carry it.
Yes sir. What about the rest of the luggage?
Take my bags to my room at once.
What sort of a primitive place have I come to?
Well? What are you standing around for?
Help me in.
Yes Mr. Boddin.
Here are your bags, sir.
Safe and sound.
I'm sorry.
Keep your hands off that.
Yes, sir.
I'm Felix King.
If there's anything I can do for you, anything at all,
just ask.
A pot of tea. Strong.
Yes sir, I'll have it sent up right away.
In the dining room.
Book me a table.
Yes, sir. I'll see what I can do.
By the window.
Yes, sir.
I'm Sorry sir, we're all full up.
I can seat you in forty-five minutes.
Forty-five minutes?
Young man, that's absurd.
I'm sorry Ma'am.
We're fully booked.
Can you book room twelve a table for tea?
Forty-five minutes.
Forty-five minutes?
Surely there's something that can be done.
I'm a paying guest at this hotel.
I'm sorry Ma'am.
We're doing our very best.
If you'd like to leave your room number...
Gus, I've got to have a table by the window.
Now.
Felix, I couldn't fit a sardine in there, it's so packed.
Room twelve is Mr. Boddin.
He's rich.
He's got this valise that he won't let anyone touch.
I bet it's full of money.
Think of the tips.
Well I can't boot people out of their tables.
What am I supposed to tell Mr. Boddin?
I'll do my best to have a table for you in half an hour.
By the window.
Don't push your luck.
Thirty minutes, preposterous!
I can bring some tea up to your room...
if you like.
So, this is the legendary White Sands hospitality I've heard
so much about and for which I am paying a small fortune -
Tea in an airless cubicle.
Actually sir, it's more...
I own and supervise more than one hundred businesses, boy,
and not one of them is as poorly run as this.
Are there any other eating establishments in the area?
Well sir, there's Peter's Tea Room up the coast.
But..ah.. I wouldn't go there if I were you.
Around here, we call it Poison Pete's.
Hmph.
You can hardly send people to the competition, now can you?
Just what I need.
A draft.
Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?
Yes, you can get out.
[♪]
Alec, you be careful.
Yes, do be careful.
There's delicate china in there.
It's come all the way from storage
in Montreal without mishap.
To be broken here would be tragic.
Feels like a ton of bricks in here.
What was that, Alec?
I said, where would you like it dear?
Well, somewhere, where I shan't be underfoot.
The kitchen, perhaps.
Oh, well I'll be starting dinner Aunt Eliza.
Well, that's all right dear.
You won't be in my way.
Look at all the tips.
Ya, didn't do too bad myself.
Could have made double if I hadn't had to turn
so many people away.
Ya, the whole world wanted tea today.
Mr. Tremayne should expand the dining room.
There ain't no room to expand.
That's too bad for all those rich people, all that money...
Oh my gosh!
Is it six already?
I've got a million chores to do when I get home!
See ya!
[♪]
Does everything have to come out of this trunk?
How do you expect me to sort it if I don't take everything out?
Oh of course...
Oh, oh, Cecily, don't let Daniel near that trunk.
Look dear why don't you go out early and gather the eggs.
That's a girl.
C'mon, Daniel.
Would you mind very much, Janet, if I left my samovar to Abigail?
After all, you'll have my Limoge dinner set when I go.
Aunt Eliza, you do whatever you think is fair.
I have to set the table.
Oh, don't mix Abigail's things with yours, Janet.
I don't know how you can decipher that document, Eliza.
It's been scribbled on and changed so many times.
It's a terrible thing to leave this earth, but it's far worse
to leave it with your affairs in a muddle.
I'd like to wager your own will isn't in order.
Oh, I've been after Alec to change that will
ever since Daniel was born.
Well, there's nothing to change.
I'm leaving everything to you, Janet.
What if Janet goes first?
Eliza, please.
Sorry I'm late.
It was really busy at the hotel --
Yes, and you haven't finished cleaning out the stalls.
I'll do it as soon as I change.
What if you go together?
You could both be hit by a train!
Somehow, I don't think that's too likely--
Oh, it can happen.
My cousin Freddie was hit by a train.
Or was it Reginald..?
Who was hit by a train?
Was someone hit by a train?
No one, dear.
No one was hit by a train.
And what about the farm?
Oh, do we really have to discuss this?
All this talk about death is so morbid.
It's not morbid.
It's realistic.
The only certain thing about life is that we must leave it.
Well, the only certain thing to me
is that I have to have dinner on the table.
Look at all the tips I made.
Well, that's all well and good, Felix, but you do have --
chores to do.
I'll finish the stalls, don't worry.
What about the farm?
Who will have the farm?
Well, that's obvious.
Felix is the oldest son.
The oldest son always gets the farm, as I did,
my father before me.
And the line will continue with Felix.
Now that's a frightening thought.
Felicity.
Now you've made him feel bad.
You'd actually trust the farm to Felix?
He'll eat more than he can produce.
Felicity!
[♪]
It's the chance of a lifetime.
Just think - tired of waiting for tea at the White Sands?
No problem.
No need to wait.
Come to Felix's tea room.
Best view on the island.
Everyone will come.
I could rake in enough money to get my own carriage and driver.
No more biking to work.
Who knows, I might even make enough money
to buy an automobile.
"Bring the motor car around, James.
No, not the black one today, the new red one --"
So - how's it going?
Almost finished.
What about the cows?
I'll bring them in when I'm done here.
That's my son...
You know what happened at work today?
Mr. Tremayne told me I have a real feel
for the hospitality business.
He even gave me sort of a promotion.
He put me in charge of someone real important.
Really?
Well, that's, that's good.
Felix, you know, your sister's remark --
about your taking over the farm being a frightening thought --
that, that was uncalled for.
No one really feels that.
Unless you feel that.
No.
Where did you get an idea like that?
I love the farm.
It's just that, I don't really feel
that I'm capable of running it.
Good!
Good.
For a moment there, I thought you weren't interested.
Yeah, it's quite a challenge-farming.
Besides how many acres to put into corn and
and how many to wheat?
How many pigs to keep for the winter and what to do
when the frost comes early?
Or the winter stays too long.
It's always a, always a struggle with nature.
A beautiful struggle.
You've got to stay on your toes, be resourceful.
That's what makes it so rewarding.
I see what you mean.
Come over here.
I want to show you something.
Now, you see this binder.
I'm saving to buy one.
You've got to keep up with the times.
I'm mean that is the future of agriculture, right there.
Mechanization.
Your future.
My future.
Felix, don't be overwhelmed at the thought of taking over.
You just need a little more experience.
When you get working with that land, you become part of it.
It gets in your blood.
Um.
Tomorrow, I am going to give you more responsibility.
I'm going to put you in charge of fixing the fences.
Now, you know, that's important work, you got to do it right.
Do you feel up to it?
Uh, sure.
Right then.
And you remember our deal?
Chores before the hotel.
I know.
Good...
Now that fence out in the eastern pasture needs fixing.
Will you give it a look.
You can count on me.
That's my boy.
More chores...Great...
[alarm ringing]
Of course I know it will tke alot of money.
Look at this place.
It's full of money.
I can smell the tips from here.
I'm saving up.
You're dreaming.
I wonder how much a person like Mr. Boddin is worth.
Forget Boddin.
He's a real tightwad.
He never tips.
Last night at dinner I waited on him hand and foot.
Nothing.
I bet you I can get a tip out of him.
I bet you can't.
How much?
One day's worth of tips.
It's a deal.
It'll be the easiest tip money I ever made.
You haven't seen the King charm in action.
Can I take those for you.
About time someone cleared the dishes.
I've had better service in the Australian outback.
Are you planning on seeing anything
while you're on the Island?
I know this place like the back of my hand.
The cliffs over by the lighthouse
are particularly dramatic.
Or maybe fishing is your game.
If so I could take you to many lovely, and private spots
where the fish are practically asking to be caught.
Or maybe you just want to sit back, relax and enjoy a book.
I'd be more more than happy to run over to Carmody and get you
I don't care about cliffs or fishing holes or novels.
I care about my breakfast.
My porridge tasted like dish water, the egg was like a rock,
and very soon this coffee will be cold.
If you don't let me finish it in peace,
I shall complain to the management.
Please!
Go away.
That King charm bowls them over every time, Felix.
[♪]
I only have one tray this size.
Would you like it Janet?
Oh yes it's lovely.
Isn't it, Felicity?
Yes it's beautiful.
This trunk has got to be moved!
This is a kitchen here, not your private store room.
On second thought, I think Abigail could use it more.
You could have this.
That...
looks like it's made of hair.
From the heads of the Ward ancestors.
Father used to call it the family hairloom!
It's a joke, you see.
Hairloom?
Lovely isn't it?
Well yes.
It's--very interesting.
Look at all those different colors and--
Felicity there's one very similar to your shade.
Little bit more sheen to it, of course.
But, you shall have it, Janet.
I'll find a safe place to put it away and keep it for you.
Thank you.
Mother.
It's horrible!
There is no room in this house for that piece of --
Oh now Just pretend you like it.
I mean by the time we get it, the old dear will be --
well, you know.
I mean we'll never have to hang it.
What she doesn't know won't hurt her.
Mother, why can't you just tell Great Aunt Eliza
which things you want and which you don't want?
That's not the way these things are done, Felicity.
Maybe it's the way they should be done.
[♪]
Felix...
Here I am.
Ready to work.
Well I hope you're ready to do a better job
than you did this morning.
What do you mean?
I found a whole bag of chicken feed out.
I know I put it on the shelf.
Well I found it on the floor.
I suppose you also know that you milked all the cows?
Of course I did.
Well you didn't.
You missed one.
And that cow is in alot of pain.
I'm sorry.
Running a farm takes your full attention
You've got to use your head.
Yes, sir, I know.
But -- I'm not going to be around forever.
You have got to learn to take over.
I know.
If your farm work suffers,
you've got to give up that hotel.
I can do both jobs, don't worry.
[alarm ringing]
[♪]
Sorry...
[♪]
Well, I'd like to know where my bags are then, they're not here.
Felix, didn't you get Mrs. Trilby's bags?
Mrs. Trilby -- room eight.
Yes, they're right here.
Those aren't mine.
Young man, I was in room ten.
Incompetence, pure incompetence!
I'm sorry --
My luggage it has been, has been stolen.
Stolen?
It was in my room when I came down for lunch --
Excuse me, room eight?
Yes.
I'll take it right up.
Where I will check to make sure that nothing is missing.
And don't forget my luggage while you're up there.
My train departs in an hour.
I can't afford to miss it, or I won't make the ferry
at Summerside.
Incompetence--
Pure incompetence.
[♪]
Oh Felix.
Felix, dear - wake up.
I'll do it!
I'll be there in a minute!
It's not morning?
No.
You go to bed now.
Go to bed.
Goodnight, Mother.
Goodnight.
[♪]
Why didn't you wake me? I'm going to be late.
I thought I'd let you sleep in.
You seemed so tired last night.
Well, I milked the cows.
And that post in the east pasture still needs fixing.
I'll do it.
[♪]
Aunt Eliza, is this the hat you were talking about?
Yes.
Try it on.
If you like it you may have it.
I love it.
It belonged to my dear cousin Margaret.
A beautiful girl.
Though in the end she went quite bald, poor dear.
Some sort of scalp fungus, they said.
Oh no--Alec!
Alec King!
What is it?
Whatever are they doing in the yard?
Good Lord.
What do you want?
Your shirts are ready, sir.
About time.
There's starch in them.
You asked for starch.
I distinctly said, No Starch.
I'm sorry, Mr. Boddin, but I know you said starch.
Oh, you do, do you?
You think I like my shirts stiff as boards?
And look here.
A broken button!
This is precisely why I didn't want starch,
to avoid this rough handling.
It's ruined.
Completely ruined.
We'll replace the button --
You'll never match these buttons.
We'll replace all the buttons.
I'm sure you will -- with cheap, ordinary buttons.
You'll pay for this.
Is anything wrong sir?
Yes, this hotel employs cretins.
A slower, more incompetent worker I have never seen.
Get this babbling numbskull out of my sight.
I want to speak to the manager.
Get me the manager?
But it wasn't my fault.
It wasn't?
No.
He did ask for starch.
Some people are unreasonable.
Unfortunately that's a fact of life.
Unreasonable, he's impossible.
Part of running a hotel is dealing with the impossible.
Perhaps we should let someone else care for Mr. Boddin.
No, it's alright, I'll do it.
I'm sorry, Felix, but I must insist someone else tend to him.
[♪]
I'm highly disappointed, Felix.
I spent the whole day rounding up cows --
-- one of them got in the corn crib
she could have bloated and died.
Did you nail in that fence support?
No.
Why not?
I didn't think it was necessary.
Well, of course it was necessary!
I fixed it myself.
Now when I ask you to do something,
I expect it to be done properly.
Not slap dash.
I can't do everything.
I'm not asking you to do everything.
You gave me too much --
You agreed to take on more responsibility.
There's not enough time to do it all.
Well, if that's the case, you're gonna have to give up
that job at the hotel.
Why?
This farm is where you are going to earn your livelihood,
not that hotel.
Your first responsibility is here.
I'm doing the best I can.
Well you can do better.
It's that hotel.
I not gonna give up the White Sands.
You will if I tell you to!
I hate this stupid farm!
Felix!
I don't want to be a farmer.
That was your idea, not mine.
I am not interested.
And, if you are going to leave this place to me when you die,
the first thing I'm going to do is sell it!
[♪]
So -- if you don't want to be a farmer, what do you want to do?
... A Tea room?
There are more and more tourists on the island.
Rich people from Toronto, Maine, Boston, New York.
And they have to eat, right?
They can go the White Sands.
Not all of them.
Mr. Tremayne has to turn some guests away.
Oh and you think that they're going to come
to "Felix's Tea Room"?
They will if it's good.
And it's gonna be good.
Well the tea room's just the beginning.
Later I'll expand and have a restaurant,
the best on the Island.
I'll have to turn people away, just like the White Sands.
I've never heard a more ridiculous idea in all my life.
It's not ridiculous.
Working that hotel has filled your head with nonsense.
I don't understand this obsession you have with money.
We make a good living from the farm.
You never want for anything.
It's not the money.
I love the hotel.
I love working there.
And I'm good at it.
Well mostly.
I want to stay and learn the business so someday
I'll have a place to run of my own.
You'll have a farm to run.
I don't want the farm.
I want something -- something exciting.
You're too young to know what you want.
Enough of this nonsense.
Let's go.
Are you coming?
I'll be along soon.
We won't be needing that much firewood for several months.
Where have you been?
Letting off a little steam.
Where's Felix?
Probably doing the same...
You know what your stubborn fool of a son wants to do?
Open up a "tea room".
A tea room!
I mean it's for old biddies.
It's something I'd expect your Aunt Eliza to dream up.
Where does he come up with these crazy notions?
Well, he's always had a mind of his own.
I could understand him wanting to leave the farm
to study to be a veterinarian, go to university.
But, something serious or at least practical.
But a tea room Janet?
You worry too much.
You know Felix.
He changes his mind seven days a week about what he wants to do.
Well, this farm is what we Kings stand for.
It's our history.
You can't just walk away from something like this.
Well, you can't.
Apparently Felix can.
You know when I was his age there was nothing I liked better
than swinging a scythe, working alongside my father.
You know I think if you push a child too hard in one direction,
he'll just run as fast as he can in the other.
Oh Goodness, Alec if I'd done everything my father
wanted me to do, I'd have never married you.
The hotel is his dream.
Boys have to dream.
Yes well, Fathers have dreams too.
[♪]
Boy, you can't get enough of this place.
It's not even your shift.
I'm not here to work.
I need a place to sleep.
What's wrong with your bed at home?
What happened?
Do you know how lucky you are?
You are so lucky.
I've been called lots of things, lucky ain't one of them.
You're lucky all right.
You're independent.
No one tells you what to do.
Many's the time I've wished I did have someone to guide me.
You don't have your father that expects you to do everything
he's planned for you.
Whatever the problem is, you oughta talk it out with him.
There's no talking to my father.
Well, running away is not going to solve anything.
Neither is going back.
I'm to pay my hard earned tip money for a room.
Well, there aren't any.
We're all full up.
There's got to be some place...
Beggars can't be choosers.
Felicity, would you stop by Olivia's when you're out
and see if she has a spool of black thread?
Why can't Felix go?
Felix is not back yet.
Don't you think you should go look for him?
And where do you suggest I start?
Oh, he'll be all right.
I mean--well he knows how to look after himself.
I've never been one to interfere, Alec,
but why are you working that boy so hard?
When I was his age, I was fancy free, going to dance classes,
rolling hoops, feeding the pigeons in the park...
I'm just trying to say that, you're only young once,
and you're old for a long time.
[door knocking]
Felix...
Why would he knock?
It's probably Gus.
Come on in, Gus.
Thank you.
Evenin' folks.
Ready to go, Felicity?
Almost.
You haven't seen Felix this evening have you?
Ah yes I have.
He's down at the hotel.
Well, what's he doing at the hotel?
Planning to spend the night, I reckon.
I fixed him up a cot.
I'll go and get him.
I'd leave him be, if you don't mind my saying.
He's pretty tiffed.
You got yourself a real independent thinker there,
Mr. King.
Oh, he knows his own mind all right.
Unfortunately it's in the wrong direction most of the time.
Well, perhaps.
But I don't ever recollect seeing him like this before.
This trunk is everywhere I go!
You said you wanted to take it out of the kitchen.
I want it out of the house.
Now don't get everyone in a dither.
Well tell Felix that.
He's at the root of the problem.
He's off sulking somewhere, because we want to hand over
the best piece of property on the Island!
We want to give him the farm!
It's not fair!
What's isn't fair?
I can tell you.
We call this the King farm.
Which means it ought to belong to all of us.
Now I may never run this farm, and I'm not saying that I want
to, but I can't for the life of me, imagine why you'd want
to leave the workings of it to someone who doesn't care
a lick about it.
That's your father you're talking to.
Well whah--what are you trying to say?
Look how often you have to remind Felix
to do things around here.
But have you ever noticed that when you ask Cecily
to do a chore, you never have to tell her twice,
it's because Cecily loves this farm.
She should be the one who inherits it.
That's not the way things are done, Felicity.
Why do things always have to be done the way they used to be?
Because there are certain traditions --
Well why can't we start new traditions?
I'm ready Gus, let's go.
[♪]
[coughing in the distance]
[♪]
Mr. Boddin?
Do you need help?
Go away.
Can't you see I've been ill?
Can I call a doctor?
Just leave me alone.
Here..
[♪]
Here we go all ready.
Let me get these out of your way
and no one will even know you were sick.
Here let me help you.
Thank you, young man.
I think I may just survive.
Food poisoning.
That's what it was.
Not the food at our hotel.
No.
I had luncheon up the coast.
Poison Pete's?
I got tired of all the line ups here.
I guess that will teach me.
I'll put in a word for you with Mr. Tremayne.
Thanks, but ah-- it doesn't matter.
I'm quitting the hotel.
My father is making me work at the farm.
Probably for the rest of my life.
You don't want to do that?
No.
Have you told him?
He doesn't listen.
So you and your father don't see eye to eye.
Hand me my valise.
This one?
This is my beloved wife and son.
I lost Vanessa twelve years ago.
Twelve years, two months, and seven days.
I'm sorry.
All I had left was my son.
My only son.
He was six months old when that picture was taken.
Went on to graduate at the top of his class at the University.
We had our differences.
I naturally assumed he'd join the family business,
carry on the Boddin name.
He wanted to be a missionary in China!
I told him it was out of the question.
He left.
We never settled our quarel.
Why don't you try to find him now?
Because he died in China three years ago
during a cholera epidemic.
... I'm sorry.
I can't tell you what to do.
What I can tell you is -- all the money in the world won't
make you happy if there's a rift between father and son.
Now you go back to bed.
I'll be all right.
I'll just stay here a while.
Make sure you'ree alright.
[♪]
What is this?
My resignation.
Resignation?
Look, Felix if this is about all that foolishness with Mr. Boddin
-- It's not just that.
I've spent the last week trying to please everyone
and ending up pleasing no one.
I wish I could stay, but I don't see how I can.
I understand.
I hate to lose you.
I hate to go.
Goodbye.
[♪]
Mother.
Felix.
Are you alright?
I'm fine.
I quit my job at the hotel.
I'll get at my chores.
Daniel and I are feeding the chickens for you.
Thanks.
Oh, I want you to have this.
It's my final wages.
You can put it towards the binder.
I should be happy, shouldn't I?
He's doing exactly what I wanted him to do.
Why don't I feel better about it?
Remember to spread the feed around Daniel.
That's the way.
If you put it all in a pile the chickens
will fight with each other.
Last night I sat up thinking about this farm
and all my years on it.
Well at least I tried to think about it.
But for some odd reason all I could think about
was the first time I left the farm.
I was about your age and they'd just finished putting
in the track for the first train on the Island.
I begged my father to take me and he did.
Did you like it?
Like it? I loved it.
It was the most exciting adventure of my young life.
But my father, he hated it.
Why?
Oh, couldn't stand all the noise, and the swaying,
and how fast it went.
The very things I loved about it.
I can still hear him.
"Travelled my whole life with horse and buggy.
Got me where I wanted to go, didn't it?
What do we need with this infernal contraption."
He--he put a damper on my good time, that's certain.
Things change Felix.
Not always the way we want them to.
But I suppose it's my turn to learn to enjoy the ride.
Here you take this money; it's yours.
No.
Yes.
You worked mighty hard for it, and I'm proud of you.
So here's what I want you to do.
You keep working hard, and you save your money, and when you're
eighteen you can buy anything you want with it.
A trip around the world,or a stable of racing horses,
or maybe a binder or even property to build a tea room
on if that's what you want.
Thank you.
And I'll give you more time off from your chores.
Ah what--
Well, you want to do a good job at the hotel,
don't you.
If you think Mr. Tremayne will have you back.
[♪]
I haven't given up on him, you know.
Eighteen's a long way off.
Maybe he'll have had his fill of the hotel business by then...
Or ah-- maybe we'll start a new tradition...
[♪]