Norwegian fiord; but that, and the country all about the
city, we enjoy in a long drive later.
On the return, regardless of the gaze of passengers astonished at our
unconventional actions, we sit on the platform of the rear car, while
"Pleasantly gleams in the soft, sweet air the Basin of Minas."
and the model conductor plies us with bits of information, which we
devour with the avidity of cormorants.
GRAND PRÉ.
Finally the brakeman shouts "Grand Pree;" and Octavia remarks, "Yes,
indeed, this is the grand prix of our tour," as the party step off the
train at this region of romance. The gallant conductor, with an air of
mystery, leads the way to a storage room in the little box of a station,
and there chops pieces from a clay-covered plank and presents us as
souvenirs. "Pieces of a coffin of one of the Acadians, exhumed at Grand
Pré fourteen months ago, near the site of the old church," we are told;
and when he continues: "A woman's bone was found in it", one unromantic
and matter-of-fact member of the Octave asserts, "Evangeline's
grandmother, of course"; while another skeptically remarks, "That's more
than I can swallow; it would give me such a spell o' coughin' as I
couldn't get over"; but the conductor and others staunchly avouch the
genuineness of the article, affirming that they were present "when it
wus dug up."
The "forest primeval", if it ever stood in this region, must have
clothed the distant hills which bound the vast meadow, and now are
covered with a dense growth of small trees which are not "murmuring
pines".
A superannuated tree in the distance it is said once shaded the smithy
of "Basil Lajeunesse", that "mighty man of the village"; and only stony
hollows in the ground mark the site of the house of "Father Felician"
and the village church.
