“Poor old creature! She looks as if she might have lived in the days of the Acadians, she’s so thin and gaunt. Yet the whole street is grass-bordered if she chose to help herself. But isn’t this glorious? Can you hardly wait till we get to Grand Pré? It’s only a few miles away and I’d almost rather walk than not.”
“You’ll not be let to walk, mind that. My father has had enough of things happening to us youngsters. I heard him tell Auntie Lu that none of us must be allowed out of sight of some of them, the grown-ups, till we were landed safe on that farm, and Auntie laughed. She said she agreed with him but she wasn’t so sure about even a farm being utterly safe from adventures. So we’ll all have to walk just niminy-piminy till then. We shouldn’t be here if Miss Greatorex hadn’t said she too wanted to ‘exercise.’ Now, she’s beckoning to us and we must turn back. Come away from staring over into that garden! That hedge of sweet-peas is not for you, honey, badly as you covet it!”
“All right, I’ll come. But I wish, I wish Father John could see them. I never saw any so big and free-blooming as they are in this beautiful Province.”
“It’s the moisture and coolness of the air, Auntie Lu says. Now, Miss Greatorex, do make Dolly Doodles walk between us, else she’ll never tear herself away from the lovely gardens we pass.”
But they were not late to breakfast, nevertheless. They had learned at last that nothing so annoyed the genial Judge as want of punctuality. He planned the hours of his day to a nicety and by keeping to his plans managed to get a great deal of enjoyment for everybody.
Already carriages to take them on the drive to Grand Pré and the old Acadian region had been ordered and were at the door when they had breakfasted and appeared on the piazza. The two girls were helped into the smaller open wagon where Melvin sat holding the reins and visibly proud of the confidence reposed in him, and on the front seat of this the Judge also took his place. The ladies with Monty and a driver occupied the comfortable surrey; and already other vehicles were entering the hotel grounds, engaged by other tourists for the same trip.
Monty looked back with regret at the other young folks and longed to ask the Judge to exchange places; then laughed to himself as he remembered that it was no longer his place to ask favors—a penniless boy as he had become!
That was a never-to-be-forgotten day for all the party. No untoward incident marked it, but so well-known is the story of that region that it needs no repetition here. Of course they visited the famous well whence “Evangeline” drew water for her herd, and almost the original herd might have fed in the meadow surrounding it, so peaceful were the cattle cropping the grass there. They saw the “old willows” and the ancient Covenanter church, wherein they all inscribed their names upon the pages of a great book kept for that special purpose.
The church especially interested Dorothy, with its quaint old pulpit and sounding board, its high-backed pews and small-paned windows; and when she wandered into the old burying ground behind, with its periwinkle-covered graves, a strange sadness settled over her.
The whole story had that tendency and the talk of “unknown graves” roused afresh in her mind the old wonder: