Mrs. Travilla, Violet, and the young girls and Walter stood upon the deck, watching their departure.
"I hope they may enjoy themselves, but I shouldn't like to walk out in this drizzle," sighed Grace. Then in a lower, livelier tone, "Mamma, are you not proud of your husband? I think he is very handsome, even in that unbecoming waterproof coat."
"And I am decidedly of the opinion that everything becomes him," returned Violet, with a low, pleased laugh. "Well, mamma and you girls, how shall we pass the morning? It really seems to me that the saloon is more inviting and comfortable at present than the deck."
The others agreed with her, and all went below, where they found the two little ones begging Grandma Rose for a story to while away the time.
"Ah," she said, "here comes your Grandma Elsie, who is far better than I am at that business.
"Oh, yes!" cried little Elsie. "Grandma, won't you please tell us now about things that have happened at Montreal and Quebec?"
"Yes, dear; I promised you, and there will be no better time than this for the telling of the story," Mrs. Travilla answered pleasantly, as she seated herself and took up her fancy work, while the children drew their chairs to her side, each young face full of eager expectancy.
Grandma Elsie took a moment to collect her thoughts, then gave the little ones very much the same story of the settlement and after-history of Montreal that Lucilla had heard from their father earlier in the day. From that she went on to give a similar account of Quebec.
"The city," she said, "is built upon a steep promontory, where two rivers, the St. Lawrence, on which we now are, and the St. Charles meet. There was formerly an Indian village there called Stadacona. Jacques Cartier, the same person I have been telling you about as the first white man who visited this spot where Montreal now stands, discovered that Indian village in the same year. But the city of Quebec was not founded until 1608; and not by Cartier, but by another man named Champlain, who on the third day of July of that year raised over it a white flag. Soon afterward rude cottages were built, a few acres of ground cleared, and one or two gardens were planted."
"Is that all of it there is now, grandma?" asked Elsie.