"Nestor of old could not have spoken more wisely." "Nor could we have been more delighted," said Archie, "if we had had the advantage of listening to the very words of that most venerable Grecian." As the tide was full and the river beautifully calm, Archie proposed to Blanche a walk along the lovely shore, which stretches--varied with sandy coves--from the manor to the little Port-Joli River. "Everything I see," said Archie, as they moved along the river's edge, the level rays of the sunset making a path of red gold from their feet to the far-off mountains, "everything I see is rich with sweet memories. Here, when you were a child, I taught you to play with the shells which I picked up along this shore. In this little bay I taught my brother Jules to swim. There are the same strawberry beds and raspberry thickets whence we plucked the fruit you were so fond of. Here, seated, book in hand, on this little rock, you used to wait the return of Jules and me from hunting, to congratulate us on our success or mock at our empty game-bags. Not a tree, a bush, a shrub, but looks to me like an old and dear acquaintance. Oh, happy childhood, happy youth! Ever rejoicing in the present, forgetful of the past, careless of the future, life rolls along as gently as the current of this pretty stream which we are now crossing. It was then that we were wise, Jules and I, when our highest ambition was to pass our days together here, happy in our work and our hunting." "Just such a life of monotony and peace," interrupted Blanche, "is that to which our sex is doomed. God in giving man strength and courage set him apart for the loftier destinies. What must be the enthusiasm of a man in the midst of the battle! What sight more sublime than that of the soldier facing death a hundred times in the tumult for all he holds most dear! What must be the fierce exultation of the warrior when the bugles sound for victory!" This noble girl knew of no glory but that of arms. Her father, almost incessantly in the field, came back to the bosom of his family only to rehearse the exploits of his comrades-in-arms; and Blanche, while yet a child, had become steeped with martial ardor. "There are triumphs all too dearly bought," answered Archie, "when one considers the disasters that have followed in their train, when one remembers the tears of the widow and the orphan, robbed of their dearest! But here we are at the Port-Joli, well named, with its sunny banks gay with wild-rose thickets, its groves of fir and spruce, and its coverts of red willow. What memories cling about this lovely stream! I see again your gentle mother and your good aunt seated here on the grass on a fair evening in August, while we are paddling up-stream, in our little green canoe, to Babin's Islet, keeping time with our paddles as we sing in chorus the refrain of your pretty song: We're afloat, we're afloat, on the water so blue, We are bound for our isle of delight.