ifuller place than this. Thar's ony one place
that can be compared with this here, an that's Grand Pre. But for the
life o' me, I never can tell which o' the two is the pootiest. It's
strange, too, how them French fellers managed to pick out the best
places in the hull province. But it shows their taste an judgment--it
doos, railly."

It was not long before the Antelope had dropped anchor in front of the
town of Digby, and Captain Corbet landed with the boys as soon as
possible. There was as good a chance of Tom being heard of here as
anywhere; since this place lay down the bay, in one sense, and if by
any chance Tom had drifted over to the Nova Scotia shore, as now seemed
probable, he would be not unlikely to go to Digby, so as to resume his
journey, so rudely interrupted, and make his way thence to his friends.

Digby is a quiet little place, that was finished long ago. It was
first settled by the Tory refugees, who came here after the
revolutionary war, and received land grants from the British
government. At first it had some activity, but its business soon
languished. The first settlers had such bright hopes of its future
that they regularly laid out a town, with streets and squares. But
these have never been used to any extent, and now appear grown over
with grass. Digby, however, has so much beauty of scenery around it,
that it may yet attract a large population. On landing here, Captain
Corbet pursued the same course as at other places. He went first to
one of the principal shops, or the post office, and told his story, and
afterwards went to the schooners at the wharves. But at Digby there was
precisely the same result to their inquiries as there had been at other
places. No news had come to the place of any one adrift, nor had any
skipper of any schooner noticed anything of the kind during his last
trip.

"What had we better do next?"

"Wal," said Captain Corbet, "we can ony finish our cruise."

"Shall we go on?"

"Yes."

"Up the bay?"

"Yes. I'll keep on past Ile Haute, an I'll cruise around Minas. You
see these drifts may take him in a'most any direction. I don't see why
he shouldn't hev drifted up thar as well as down here."

It was Wednesday when they reached Digby.

On the evening of that day the Antelope weighed anchor, and sailed out
into the Bay of Fundy.

It was bright sunshine, with a perfectly cloudless sky inside, but
outside the Antelope plunged into the midst of a den