Down North and Up Along 
wheat and linen elsewhere, and the flocks and 
herds for the most part find pasture in more 
distant and less fertile places. 
Many of the houses of Grand Pre are shin- 
gled to the ground, and some are moss-grown 
and gray as well, and the village has a certain 
distinction from the tall columns of Lombardy 
poplars that stand about. These poplars were 
brought by the French from their home across 
the sea ; and wherever in Nova Scotia one sees 
these tall straight trees, he may be sure that 
they mark the site of what was once an Aca- 
dian village. 
At Grand Pre, too, are the Acadian willows, 
not only picturesque in themselves, but wearing 
an air of romance and poetry that enriches the 
whole scene. It is hard to believe we live in 
the things of to-day in the presence of the wil- 
lows of Grand Pre. There are a few very old 
and very decrepit ones on the road leading 
from the railway station toward the town. 
They can be regarded with unstinted emotion 
and unbridled imagination, for there can be no 
doubt that they were really put there by French 
hands as much as a hundred and fifty years ago, 
and have witnessed the tragic scenes that make 
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