"I am very sorry, sir; I did not mean to make you wet."
"It's all right, young man," returned the other; "I am not much wetter than I was previously, thanks to this kind of fun. However, my fondness for water will never equal what yours may be some day."
Len's smile vanished, and an ugly look came into his eyes, and he muttered something under his breath. He looked stealthily about him, and moved away from the people. Winslow saw the whole affair, and wondered what the meaning of the sudden change in Len's manner meant, as he did not understand the words of the stranger.
The salmon were now divided up, or sold on the spot at a high price, and in a few more minutes the tide turned and filled up quickly the space between the shores.
Pierre and Winslow walked up the road together, and the old man explained to his friend the meaning of the words that had so affected Len. The story was in substance as follows:
An old Acadian woman and her grandson, whose father and mother had died while attempting to reach their own country again after having been left on the shore of Virginia, had reached this part of the province after months of difficulty and hardship. She was passing through a settlement of English people. The whole care and hope of her life were in her grandchild. She had often given to him and starved herself for his sake. She had carried him miles and miles to save him from suffering. On this day she had walked a long distance in the heat of the summer, and held him in her arms while he slept. He awoke, and feeling very thirsty, asked several times for a drink. Just then a man approached with a bucket of water which he had taken from a well or spring. Seeing him, the child again cried out for a drink. On this the woman arose from the stone on which she had rested for a moment, and asked the man for a sip to give her child. The man refused her request, and pushing her aside, passed on, leaving the child in tears. The man's cruelty and the tears of the child aroused her, and crying out after the man as he left her, she said:
"Man of hate! Man of Satan! you shall thirst. And your sons from their manhood shall thirst till your name shall die. Your breed shall be cursed with what you deny my child."
"From that day," said Pierre, in concluding his narrative, "the sons of the man have been afflicted with an awful, unquenchable thirst. They are known as the water-cursed, and they are dying out. It is believed by the people here that Len will not escape the water curse, and it has isolated them from their own race. There are several who are afflicted, but Len has not come of age yet. I know what the effect upon them has been, and it is indeed a curse.
"Unfortunately for Len, he has grown into a violent attachment for Marie. No Acadian would marry a victim of the water curse."
"I have observed evidence of his love for Marie," he replied.