DESIRÉ’S INSPIRATIONS
It was a quaint old room in which they settled down after supper had been
eaten and the children put to bed. The woodwork was painted a deep blue,
known as Acadian blue, and the floor was bare except for a couple of oval
braided rugs in which the same color predominated. In the center of the
room stood a hutch table, one that can be changed to a chest by reversing
its hinged top. Around it were half a dozen high-backed chairs, their
seats made of strips of deerskin woven in and out like the paper mats
made in kindergartens. A spinning wheel stood beside the fireplace,
before which sat Jack and Desiré, with no other light except that of the
dancing flames.
“Now Dissy,” said the boy, laying his hand affectionately over hers,
“let’s have the inspiration.”
“It’s this: that we stay on here as tenants. Nicolas can’t live in this
house and his own too!”
“But one trouble with that plan is that Nicolas wants to sell the
property and get his money out.”
“Who’d buy it? Nobody ever moves into or out of this town.”
“He has a customer now. André Comeau’s prospective father-in-law wants to
move here after the wedding. He can’t bear to have Marie live so far away
from him. Sorry to spoil your inspiration, dear.”
Desiré made no reply; for she was very close to tears, and she hated to
act like a baby instead of the good pal her brother had always called
her.
“We’re going to work on André’s house again tomorrow,” observed Jack
presently. “The roof’s on, the floors laid, and by Saturday we should be
able to start the barn.”
In New Acadia all the relatives, friends, and neighbors of a man who is
about to be married join in building a new house for him. They clear a
piece of land, haul materials, and labor for weeks on the construction of
house, barn, and sheds. When these are finished, the garden is prepared,
the fields ploughed and planted, and the buildings furnished. The
bride-to-be contributes linens, and her people stock the farm with
animals. Some morning the whole countryside walks to church to see the
couple wedded, returning to the home of the bride’s mother, where the day
is spent in feasting and merry-making. If the groom can afford it, he
then takes his bride to Yarmouth to spend a few days at the Grand Hotel.
That is the greatest ambition of every rustic pair.
Jack talked on quietly about the house raising until he saw that his
sister had recovered her composure. She was smiling bravely as he kissed
her goodnight, but her sleep was broken by feverish dreams of the worn
slip of paper, and a long journey.
When Jack returned at dusk the following evening, after a long day’s work
on André’s house, he found Desiré waiting for him with sparkling eyes,
flushed face, and such an air of repressed excitement that he wondered
what had happened while he had been away.
It was necessary to wait until the children had gone to bed before he
could question her. They had decided it was best to leave the younger
ones out of discussions of ways and means. “Let them be carefree as long
as they can,” Desiré had urged, and Jack had agreed.
“Who do you suppose was here today?” she asked, perching on the arm of
his chair as soon as they were alone.
“Never could guess,” he replied, slipping his arm around her.
“Old Simon.”
“Starting his spring trip early, isn’t he?”
“Rather. I made him stay to dinner, and we talked and talked.”
Simon drove one of the big covered wagons which are common in Nova
Scotia. They have double doors at the back, and are filled with all kinds
of groceries and notions, a regular general store on wheels. Many parts
of the country are so thinly settled that it would be impossible for
people to obtain certain supplies without the existence of these
interesting wagons. Some of them specialize in certain things, like
ready-to-wear clothing, but most of them carry a little of everything.
“Did he have anything interesting to tell?”
The proprietors of these odd stores act as relayers of bits of news, as
well as merchandise, and often bear messages from one part of the
peninsula to the other.
“Why—why—I don’t—really know,” faltered Desiré.
“Don’t know?” repeated her brother, turning to look at her in surprise;
for although she dearly loved her home, she was always eager for contacts
with the outside world.
“Well, you see, we talked business all the time.”
“Business?” he queried, more and more puzzled.
“Yes. Oh, Jack, let _us_ get a wagon!”
“Desiré, you must be crazy!” he exclaimed, startled out of his usual calm
of manner and speech.
“No, I’m not really. Just listen a minute,” telling off the points on her
fingers. “We’d be all together. We’d be earning an honest living, and
having a lot of fun, and seeing places; and it’s healthful to be
out-of-doors, a lot; and—” she paused for breath.
“But, Dissy,” protested her brother gently, “we couldn’t live in the
wagon.”
“Oh, yes, we could.”
“All of us? Day and night?” asked the boy, troubled at this odd notion
that had evidently so strongly taken possession of his hitherto sensible
sister.
“We could have a little tent for you and René at night. Prissy and I
could easily sleep in the wagon. It would be no different from camping,
Jack; and lots of people do that.”
“What about winter?”
“Well, of course we couldn’t live that way after it gets real cold, but
winter’s a long way off. Maybe we’d make enough by then to rent a couple
of rooms in some central place and take just day trips. Or perhaps we’ll
find out what that paper means, and have—who knows what?”
Jack shook his head.
“Seriously, Desiré, I don’t see how we can make a living from a traveling
store. Simon does, of course; but there is only one of him, and four of
us.”
“But,” resumed the girl, after a short pause, “we have no place to go if
Nicolas forecloses; we don’t know how else to support ourselves; so
wouldn’t traveling around the country all summer give us a chance to see
all kinds of places and people? Mightn’t we get in touch with
possibilities for the future? Our living expenses would be small; for we
could gather wild things to eat—”
“A few bears, or owls, I suppose,” laughed her brother.
“No, silly! Berries, and—and grapes, and things.”
“Heavy diet.”
“And fish,” concluded Desiré triumphantly.
“Another thing,” continued Jack, resuming his gravity, “you wouldn’t want
to spoil old Simon’s route by taking some of his customers.”
“Of course not, but there certainly must be sections where there is no
traveling store. We could take one of those.”
Just then a heavy knock on the front door startled them both.