Acadians -- History -- Juvenile fiction; Nova Scotia -- Description and travel -- Juvenile fiction; Vacations -- Juvenile fiction
"Don't call them little boys, Amy; remember how I felt when I was ten."
"Here, young men." As Fritz spoke the boys drew nearer, and Fritz,
drawing from his pocket a handful of silver, laid in each of six palms a
bright ten-cent coin with the Queen's head stamped upon it.
"But we didn't do anything," one of the six managed to say.
"No, but you _would_ have helped the young lady find a locksmith, and
besides, you brought her to the particular spot where I was sitting, and
so you found her keys for her."
This logic was so correct that the six boys, feeling that they had
earned the money, rushed off with a shout of "Thank you," to find the
quickest way of spending it.
"You might have brought the keys to the hotel," complained Amy. "Then I
needn't have had this dusty walk."
"After the summary way in which you banished me this morning I certainly
could not put myself in your way again. But I knew that when you came to
dress for the afternoon you would miss your keys, and happen _my_ way.
Surely you can't object to my being here?"
"Of course not. I am very much obliged to you."
"Besides, I found the keys only this afternoon. They had slipped under a
board, and when I saw the end of the chain I recognized it at once. May
I walk with you part way up-town? I'm sorry that I can't go all the way.
But Taps and I have an errand to do, and it's now within an hour of
train time. Remember, you have banished us."
As they walked, Fritz, abandoning frivolity, outlined his plans for the
next week. Priscilla listened with great interest. Nova Scotia was
indeed a new land to her, and as she had rather suddenly decided to
accompany Amy and her mother she had read nothing on the subject of the
province in which they were to spend a few weeks.
Fritz had known little more than Priscilla until he had stumbled on some
one crossing on the boat the preceding night who had had much to say
about the old Fort La Tour and its neighborhood.
"Fort La Tour!" Amy exclaimed. "I shouldn't care to discredit your
history, but I am sure that that was on the River St. John across the
Bay, in quite the opposite direction from where you are going."
"There, there, my dear Miss Amy Redmond, you are just like other people.
Because you know _some_ Acadian history you think that you know it all.
There certainly was a Fort La Tour at St. John, but its remains, I hear,
are altogether invisible now; whereas the first Fort La Tour can still
be seen in outline, at least. There isn't any masonry, I believe, yet
you can trace the outline in the grass. You remember, Amy, it was once
called Fort Loméron."
"I'm sorry, Fritz, but I don't remember. You must have taken a special
course in history lately."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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