CHAPTER XIV
EASTER IN NASSAU
“The Merry Hearts” had started out bright and early, intent upon making their first whole day of sight-seeing as long as possible. They were glad to find that the weather was a shade cooler, and that the blinding glare of the sunshine was veiled by thin clouds. At breakfast they announced their intention of visiting Grant’s Town, and invited Mr. and Mrs. Wales to join their party.
“Grant’s Town?” repeated Mr. Wales. “I never heard of it. Where is it? And what is it? And how did you hear about it?”
“It’s the negro settlement up on the hill,” answered Betty. “The old black woman who has charge of our hotel told us about it. She says that the yards up there are a lot prettier than the grounds of either hotel.”
“Very well,” said Mr. Wales briskly. “We’ll go to Grant’s Town this morning.”
Mrs. Wales and Miss Hale were loath to leave the shade of the Colonial’s piazza, but even they had to admit, after they had been persuaded to see it, that Grant’s Town was well worth visiting.
Eleanor acted as guide, because it was she who had had the conversation about Grant’s Town with the colored maid. “We go straight up Market Street,” she said, “and Market Street starts from the town market, which is somewhere on this long street that skirts the water—Bay Street, the woman called it—the one that your hotel is on.”
Presently they came to the market, and Mr. Wales wanted to stop and exhibit that to his party, but Eleanor objected. “The best time to see the market is before breakfast,” she declared. “There’s nothing much left by this time, and if we wait now, it may be too hot to go to Grant’s Town.”
And Mr. Wales, with a laughing remark to Ethel about the difficulty of managing these college girls, with their superior information, admitted that Eleanor’s council was wiser.
Market Street gradually changed from a closely built highway, lined with little shops and shabby wooden houses built close to the street, to a shaded country road with walled gardens and orchards on either side of it.