Jean Converse was born to an English-speaking father and a French-speaking mother, an exception for the time. Speaking English at home, Jean had difficulty being understood at the school. Instead of speaking, young Converse listened attentively. Despite his language difficulties, he excelled in everything related to mathematics and history. He frequently helped his father count the logs coming into the sawmill. Even though he would listen to everything that was said in the schoolyard, Jean was particularly attentive to the stories told by the construction men who cut their logs. Once, Jean wanted to tell one of these stories at the dinner table in the same bold language used by his original storyteller! He got a soapy tongue. Cautious, Jean began to collect the stories around him, waiting for the right moment to tell them...
On the evening of his fourteenth birthday, Jean was seated on the porch of his parents white house when he heard strange voices. Curious, Jean went to the edge of the Cherry River, which flows nearby, to discover a bullfrog that seemed to be speaking with a muskrat. Jean took advantage of this impromptu gathering under the trees to tell his best story. The two animals remained motionless, captivated.
Since that evening, every twilight, Jean Converse sits on a bed of moss and tells his story facing the river, surrounded by more and more animals. The following spring, people from the village joined his audience, creating what may have been the very first storytelling festival in Orford Township!
