A Sister to Evangeline

arting must have been visible to all the house. On my return within doors I found Yvonne walk

out on the porch with me for a little wh

er, in a rebuking voice, "wi

o as well as the porch, where the moonlight is, and the smell

t Quebec," sa

would was in his eyes good. But her mother

s a law unto herse

lowing the light figure out upon the

bec Mademoiselle would have been the most formal of the f

ad seen these during a voyage down the Gulf from Quebec, and had so fancied them that her father had been impelled to have one netted for her by the shad-fishers. It was her favour

with a little imperious motion, to a

t it and placed it as close as I dared to the hammo

im and warm and soft. My breath came in a quick gasp, and I drew away my hand in a strange and overwhelming perturbation. The hammock was left to stop of itself-and, indeed, its swinging was b

and darker than ever, deeps of mystery,-and now, I thought, of grave

out here to talk

misgivings were justified. It trembled, beyond a doubt. The

me to Grand Pré certain wonderful dreams. Of these I find some more than realized

hift to tell her a little of my wanderings-of a bush fight here, a night march there, of the foiling of a foe, of the timely succour of a friend-till I saw that I was pleasing her. Her face leaned a little toward me. Her eyes spoke, dilating and contracting. Her lips were slightly par

ked at her, waiting for

This Acadian land, with its wonder and its beauty, has found no interpreter but you, and

erses were no gre

d only through your eyes the great sweep of the Minas tides. And only the other day I heard papa, who cares for no poetry but his old 'Chansons de Gestes,' quoting you to Father Fafard wit

the orchard in summer time without saying o

joy. I was not used to commendation for such things, my verses being wont

oftly, and be

aves, so co

the su

though the w

a bird

st

tly mov

ed expe

e graciou

rm I can

leaves, the

your di

r shadows

d and ha

e

nspoken

look all

he secre

ors would

thought particularly well of; but on her

hose of mine which you honour with your praise. They have had another, a more wonderful, theme-a theme all too high for them, which nevertheless spurred them to their best.

I continued, be

breath, above t

t, un

ah! not

56monsieur; but not to-night. You shall say them to me to-morrow. I must not stay to listen to

fingers reason and judgment flowed from me. I bowed my head over them to the edge of the hammock, and with

ms-but I durst not, and my eyes dropped as I thought of it. By chance they rested upon her feet-upon the tiny, quill-worked, beaded white moccasins, demurely crossed, the one over the other. Her skirt was so closely gathered about her ankles that just an i

athless confusion I sprang to my feet, and found her standing erect at the other side of the hammo

d. "What right did I give you?

illar that supported o

have loved you, worshipped you, so

k so?" she cried.

doggedly. "I forget nothing. You

harply to her face and dropping them a

ast me, with a sob, and disappear