A LABRADOR SPRING 



which the Acadians came, and the French lan- 

 guage of the sixteenth century. The little 

 children shrugged their shoulders delightfully, 

 and said s' paw as cleverly as their elders. Now 

 s'paw is merely a contraction of je ne sais pas, 

 and corresponds to " I dunno," or to the more 

 forcible " search me " used by our friend the 

 Yankee painter. Only the doctor and the store- 

 keeper as far as I could discover spoke English 

 in this place. 



The continued use of the French tongue by a 

 people living under the English flag, extending 

 through so many generations, is interesting 

 and is found not only in out of the way places 

 like this little village, but also in a city of the 

 size of Quebec, where one sees the words " mai- 

 son a loue " placed above " house to let." The 

 French and English appear as difficult to mix as 

 oil and water. That a certain amount of as- 

 similation, however, has taken place is shown in 

 the use of the word potdtes instead of pomme 

 de terre, and in the incorporation of various 

 terms used in connection with navigation. For 

 example, " heave tranquilement " and " heave 

 le slack away," and " go ahead un pen " were 

 orders which arrested my attention on the 



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