he died, nôtre père went over the contents of his tin box with me to make sure that I understood all about the bills, and the mortgage on the farm and—”
“Mortgage!” exclaimed Desiré in shocked tones. “I never knew we had one.”
“I, either, until that day. You see nôtre mère was sick so long that all our little savings were used up, and ready money was an absolute necessity.”
“And what did he tell you about this?” continued the girl, after a thoughtful pause, running her finger along the line of tantalizing characters.
“Nothing very definite. He said it was a memorandum of some kind that had been handed down in our family for generations. The name of its writer, and its meaning, have been lost in the past; but each father passed it on to his eldest son, with a warning to preserve it most carefully, for it was valuable.”
“And now it belongs to you,” concluded Desiré, half sadly, half proudly.
Jack nodded, and for several moments neither spoke.
John Wistmore, aged 18, Desiré, 14, Priscilla, 9, and René, 5, were direct descendants of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, whose story the poet Longfellow tells in The Courtship of Miles Standish.
The little town of Sissiboo, an Indian corruption of Six Hiboux1where they lived, is one of those settled by the Acadians upon their return to the land of their birth some years after the expulsion. So closely, so ramblingly are the villages strung along the shores of St. Mary’s Bay on the northwest coast of Nova Scotia that it is hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. Their inhabitants live exactly as did their ancestors, speaking French and preserving with care all the old habits and customs.
The lives of the children had been simple, happy ones, until the recent death of their father and mother, hardly three months apart. John Wistmore, in whose veins flowed the blood of men of culture and ambition, had been anxious to give his children greater educational advantages than Sissiboo afforded. Jack, therefore, had been sent to Wolfville to school, and was now ready for college; while Desiré was looking forward to high school in the autumn. Now all was changed. Without relatives, without money, and without prospects, they faced the problem of supporting the two younger children and themselves.
“Where did you find this?” asked Jack, rousing himself.
“On the floor in front of the cupboard.”
“It must have slipped from the box when I took out the mortgage. I went over it with Nicolas Bouchard this morning.”
“Oh, does he hold it?”
“Yes—and—”
“He wants his money?”
Jack nodded.
“But what can we do? We can’t possibly pay him.”
“Nothing, I guess, dear, except let him foreclose.”
“Would we get any money at all, then?”
“Very little. Not enough to live on, certainly.”
“I wish I knew what these mean,” she sighed wistfully, touching the paper still between her brother’s fingers. “If we could only find out, maybe we’d get enough money to pay Nicolas.”
Jack laughed in spite of his anxiety. “I’m afraid we’d all starve before they could be interpreted. Too bad, as things have gone, that I didn’t farm as soon as I was old enough—”
“Don’t say that! We’ll hope and plan for your college course—”
“Desiré, dear,” protested her brother, gently but firmly, “it is absolutely out of the question, even to think of such a thing.”
“But, Jack, every one should have some special goal in life, as an incentive if nothing else; and I’m not going to give up planning for our education. One never knows when good fortune is waiting just around the next corner to complete one’s own efforts.”
“I guess our goal will be to provide food and clothing for the children. I’m afraid it will be a hard pull for you and me to keep the family together—”
“Oh, but we must stay together, Jack,” she cried, grasping his arm.
“As far as I can see,” he continued slowly, “the only thing to be done is to move to Halifax or Yarmouth, where I could get work of some kind. Should you mind very much?”
“Whatever you decide, I’ll be willing to do,” replied the girl bravely.
“If it will make you any happier,” continued Jack, giving her one of his grave, sweet smiles, “we’ll place higher education among our day dreams.”
“If you folks ain’t hungry, we are!” announced Priscilla, opening the door behind them so suddenly that both jumped.
“You see?” laughed Jack, as he pulled Desiré up from the low step.
“I’ve just had a wonderful inspiration though,” she whispered as they entered the hall.
CHAPTER II
DESIRÉ’S INSPIRATIONS
It was a quaint old room in which they settled down after supper had been eaten and the children put to bed. The woodwork was painted a deep blue, known as Acadian blue, and the floor was bare except for a couple of oval braided rugs in which the same color predominated. In the center of the room stood a hutch table, one that can be changed to a chest by reversing its hinged top. Around it were half a dozen high-backed chairs, their seats made of strips of deerskin woven in and out like the paper mats made in kindergartens. A spinning wheel stood beside the fireplace, before which sat Jack and Desiré, with no other light except that of the dancing flames.
“Now Dissy,” said the boy, laying his hand affectionately over hers, “let’s have the inspiration.”
“It’s this: that we stay on here as tenants. Nicolas can’t live in this house and his own too!”
“But one trouble with that plan is that Nicolas wants to sell the property and get his money out.”
“Who’d buy it? Nobody ever moves into or out of this town.”
“He has a customer now. André Comeau’s prospective father-in-law wants to move here after the wedding. He can’t bear to have Marie live so far away from him. Sorry to spoil your inspiration, dear.”
Desiré made no reply; for she was very close to tears, and she hated to act like a baby instead of the good pal her brother had always called her.
“We’re going to work on André’s house again tomorrow,” observed Jack presently. “The roof’s on, the floors laid, and by Saturday we should be able to start the barn.”
In New Acadia all the relatives, friends, and neighbors of a man who is about to be married join in building a new house for him. They clear a piece of land, haul materials, and labor for weeks on the construction of house, barn, and sheds. When these are finished, the garden is prepared, the
