“I was sorry we could get no information, when we passed through Wilmot, about the first Wistmore house in this country,” said Jack.
“They lived on a sheep farm when they came here from the States, and probably the place looks like all others of its kind,” replied Desiré, poring over the book.
“I think the Godet house must be the other side of Grand Pré,” observed Jack, looking over her shoulder. “We’ll go there first.”
So they turned off the main road and drove down the hill, through the straggling village, its long street bordered by spreading trees and scattered white houses far back from the road. The great marsh meadow, which was the Grand Pré of Longfellow’s poem Evangeline, has been set apart as a park, and is surrounded by a fence. By going through a gate-house, one enters the enclosure known as Acadian National Park.
As the Wistmores descended the low broad step on the park side of the gate-house, René, his eyes on the distant well of which he had heard his sisters talking, put one foot right into a very small flower-bordered pool at the left of the step. Everyone turned at the sound of the splash.
“Renny!” exclaimed Priscilla severely, “I never saw such a child for water.”
“You rolled right into the river,” retorted the little boy, “and got all red mud too!”
Jack and Desiré exchanged smiles.
For an hour the children wandered over the interesting and beautiful meadowland, dotted with large beds of gorgeous flowers.
“What a sense of spaciousness, and of peace, the place gives one,” observed Desiré, as they stood before the little chapel, gazing about them. “Look, René, at the swallows’ nests.”