THE Grand Pré Academy, under the presiding care of Dr. Porter, was a highly popular and very efficient boarding school. In choosing such a place for the Academy, Dr. Porter had shown that ardent love of nature which always distinguished him. It was situated in a place which yields to no other in the world for varied charms of land, sea, and sky, and which can never be forgotten after it has once been seen. Standing upon the slope of a hill, the Academy, with its broad portico and lofty cupola, looked down upon a scene whose loveliness has been described in Longfellow’s exquisite verse: “In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, Distant secluded still, the little village of Grand Pré Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward, Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number. Dikes that the hands of the farmers had reared with labor incessant, Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood gates Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o’er the meadows. “West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields. Spreading afar and unseened o’er the plain; and away to the northward. Blomidon rose, and the forests old; and aloft on the moun tains Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from the mighty Atlantic Looked on the happy valley, but ne’er from their station de scended.”