THE GIRL WHO WOULDN'T GET MARRIED

Thin folk-merriment, feminist division--but effectively conveyed by Jack Kent's comic-opera types. A rich farmer, setting his sights on the resistant daughter of his poorer neighbor, bribes the neighbor into conniving at a match; when the daughter still won't agree, and the rich farmer threatens retaliation, the father tells him to ""Get everything ready for the wedding. . . send for my daughter. . . [and] as soon as she gets to the house--marry her!"" So the preparations proceed, a boy goes to fetch what ""your father promised my master,"" and the quick-thinking girl points to ""that little bay mare of ours"". . . which in due course comes forth, decked as a bride, to the hilarity of the assembled guests and the chagrin of the rich farmer. All too reliant on a single, old-hat joke--yet also plain and perky.