A ROMANCE OF "OUR LAKE" 155 



sador told the old, old story so faithfully and so well 

 that Anita was soon wrapt in love's day-dreams as 

 firmly as her distant lover. However, time was pre- 

 cious, the messenger must return with all speed to the 

 Penobscot waters to tell Romeo how impatiently his 

 Juliet awaited him, so that a meeting of the lovers 

 could be consummated before September waxed old. 

 Anita implicitly trusted the envoy and promised to 

 listen to his admonitions of profound secrecy and cir- 

 cumspection. She sent by him a letter written upon 

 birch bark and a coral ring as a token which her 

 Romeo was to wear upon the third finger of his right 

 hand when they met. The return journey of Nicholas 

 down the Tobique was soon accomplished, and then 

 the hard paddling and poling up the St. Johns was un- 

 dertaken in right good earnest. 



In the meantime, Frank couldn't contain his impa- 

 tience. He " imagined many vain things," he fretted 

 and fumed until his restlessness broke all bounds, and 

 he determined to start ahead, trusting to luck or to fate 

 that he might meet his foster-father on the watery path 

 somewhere. Frank took good care to paddle only by 

 day and to rest at night some place, where, if any canoe 

 was to come along from the other direction, he would 

 be sure to know who its occupant was, because the 

 canoe would have to pass very close to where he would 

 tie up. On the last day of July, about an hour after 

 daybreak, Nicholas was paddling through Long Lake, 



