home again amid the fragrant resinous trees, until we gained
the high road, and so by pretty cottages, and lawns, and picket fences;
sometimes meeting groups of wandering damsels with their young and happy
lovers; sometimes twos and threes of horse-women, in habits, hats, and
feathers; now catching a glimpse of the broad, blue harbor; now looking
down a green lane, bordered with turf and copse; until we reached our
comfortable quarters at Mrs. Hearn's, where the pretty chambermaid, with
drooping eyes, welcomed us in a voice whose music was sweeter than the
tea-bell she held in her hand. And here, too, we found Malcolm, waiting
for his pay, partially sober and quiet as a lamb.

I trust the reader will not find fault with the writer for dwelling upon
these minute particulars. In this itinerary of the trip to the Acadian
land, I have endeavored to portray, as faithfully as may be, the salient
features of the country, and particularly those contrasts visible in the
settlements; the jealous preservation of those dear, old, splendid
prejudices, that separate tribe from tribe, clan from clan, sect from
sect, race from race. I wish the reader to see and know the country as it
is, not for the purpose of arousing his prejudices against a neighboring
people, but rather with the intent of showing to what result these
prejudices tend, in order that he may correct his own. A mere aggregation
of tribes is not a great people. Take the human species in a state of
sectionalism, and it does not make much difference whether it is in the
shape of the Indian, proud of the blue and red stripes on his face, or the
Scotchman, proud of the blue and red stripes on his plaid, the inferiority
of the human animal, with his tribal sheep-mark on him, is evident enough
to any person of enlarged understanding. Therefore I have been minute and
faithful in describing the species McGibbet and Malcolm, and in
contrasting them with the hardy fisherman of Louisburgh, the Micmacs of
Sydney, the negroes of Deer's Castle, the Acadians of Chizzetcook, and as
we shall see anon with other sectional specimens, just as they present
their kaleidoscopic hues in the local settlements of this colony.

It is just a year since I was seated in that cosy inn-parlor at Sydney, and
how strangely it all comes back again: the little window overlooking the
harbor, the lights on the twinkling waters; the old-fashioned house-clock
in the corner of the room; the bright brass andiron