ank you
heartily for your greeting and for your hospitality so generously
tendered. See, we number over two hundred persons, and it would be
taxing your generosity too heavily, no one but a king could accomplish
your noble design.'

"'Sir,' they answered, 'we are citizens of Maryland, and we own large
estates. We have everything in abundance at our homes, and this
abundance we are willing to share with you. Accept our offer, and the
Brent and Smith families will ever be grateful to God, who has given
them the means to minister to your wants, assuage your afflictions and
soothe your sorrows.'

"How could we decline an offer so generously made? It was impossible
for us to find words expressive of our gratitude. Unable to utter a
single word, we shook hands with them, but our silence was far more
eloquent than any language we could have used."

Chapter Seven

Assisted by Their Generous
Friends

_The Acadians become prosperous, but yearn to rejoin
their friends and relatives in Louisiana_

"The same day, we moved to their farms, which lay near by, and I shall
never forget the kind welcome we received from these two families.
They vied with each other in their kind offices toward us, and
ministered to our wants with so much grace and affability, that it
gave additional charm and value to their already boundless
hospitality.

"Petiots, let the names of Brent and of Smith remain enchased forever
like precious jewels in your hearts, let their remembrance never fade
from your memory, for more generous and worthier beings never breathed
the pure air of heaven.

[Illustration: _Catholic Church, St. Martinsville, La._]

"Thus it was, petiots, that we settled in Maryland after leaving
Acadia.

"Three years passed away peacefully and happily, and during the whole
of that time, the Smith and Brent families remained our steadfast
friends. Our party had prospered, and plenty smiled once more in
our homes. We lived as happy as exiles could live away from the
fatherland, ignorant of the fate of those who had been torn from us
soruthlessly. In vain we had endeavored to ascertain the lot of
our friends and relatives, and what had become of them; we could
learn nothing. Many parents wept for their lost children; many a
disconsolate wife pined away in sorrow and hopeless grief for a
lost husband; but, petiots, the saddest of all was the fate of
poor Emmeline Labiche."

Emmeline Labiche? Who was Emmeline Labiche?