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  _"Oh, it's he!" cried Priscilla._

  FINDING THE LOST TREASURE

  By HELEN M. PERSONS

  THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK

  Copyright MCMXXXIII By The Saalfield Publishing Company Printed in U.S.A.

  CONTENTS

  I A Mysterious Paper 5 II Desire's Inspirations 11 III Two Callers 17 IV Out to Sea 28 V A Midnight Walk 39 VI The Pie Social 50 VII A Fright 60 VIII A Fight 66 IX In Camp 72 X A Night Prowler 82 XI The Blue-covered Book 87 XII A Search for Rene 102 XIII Indians and Strawberries 107 XIV Two Mishaps 119 XV The Old Godet House 129 XVI A New Friend 140 XVII An Old Enemy 147 XVIII A Collision 152 XIX Poor Dolly! 157 XX Good Samaritans 168 XXI A Surprise 181 XXII Caught by Storm 192 XXIII Shelter 195 XXIV Back to Yarmouth 205 XXV Lobster Pots 215 XXVI Hands Off! 222 XXVII Jack's Jobs 225 XXVIII A Find 235 XXIX W-17^55--15x12--6754 245

  FINDING THE LOST TREASURE

  CHAPTER I A MYSTERIOUS PAPER

  "W-17^55-15x12-6754," read Desire slowly. "What _does_ it mean?"

  "What does what mean, Dissy?" asked her younger sister, who was rolling aball across the floor to little Rene.

  "Just some figures on an old paper I found, dear. I must tell Jack aboutthem. Do you know where he is?"

  "Out there somewhere, I guess," replied the child, with a vague gestureindicating the front yard.

  Desire flung back her short dark curls and crossed the room to a windowwhere sturdy geraniums raised their scarlet clusters to the very top ofthe panes. It was the custom in that part of Nova Scotia to make aregular screen of blossoming plants in all front windows, sometimes evenin those of the cellar. Peering between two thick stems, she could seeher older brother sitting on the doorstep, gazing out across St. Mary'sBay which lay like a blue, blue flag along the shore.

  Crossing the narrow hall and opening the outside door, Desire droppeddown beside the boy and thrust a time-yellowed slip of paper into hishands.

  "Did you ever see this?"

  "Yes," he replied slowly. "A few days before he died, _notre pere_ wentover the contents of his tin box with me to make sure that I understoodall about the bills, and the mortgage on the farm and--"

  "Mortgage!" exclaimed Desire in shocked tones. "I never knew we had one."

  "I, either, until that day. You see _notre mere_ was sick so long thatall our little savings were used up, and ready money was an absolutenecessity."

  "And what did he tell you about this?" continued the girl, after athoughtful pause, running her finger along the line of tantalizingcharacters.

  "Nothing very definite. He said it was a memorandum of some kind that hadbeen handed down in our family for generations. The name of its writer,and its meaning, have been lost in the past; but each father passed it onto his eldest son, with a warning to preserve it most carefully, for itwas valuable."

  "And now it belongs to you," concluded Desire, half sadly, half proudly.

  Jack nodded, and for several moments neither spoke.

  John Wistmore, aged 18, Desire, 14, Priscilla, 9, and Rene, 5, weredirect descendants of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, whose story thepoet Longfellow tells in _The Courtship of Miles Standish_.

  The little town of Sissiboo, an Indian corruption of _SixHiboux_[footnote: SIX OWLS.] where they lived, is one of those settled bythe Acadians upon their return to the land of their birth some yearsafter the expulsion. So closely, so ramblingly are the villages strungalong the shores of St. Mary's Bay on the northwest coast of Nova Scotiathat it is hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. Theirinhabitants live exactly as did their ancestors, speaking French andpreserving with care all the old habits and customs.

  The lives of the children had been simple, happy ones, until the recentdeath of their father and mother, hardly three months apart. JohnWistmore, in whose veins flowed the blood of men of culture and ambition,had been anxious to give his children greater educational advantages thanSissiboo afforded. Jack, therefore, had been sent to Wolfville to school,and was now ready for college; while Desire was looking forward to highschool in the autumn. Now all was changed. Without relatives, withoutmoney, and without prospects, they faced the problem of supporting thetwo younger children and themselves.

  "Where did you find this?" asked Jack, rousing himself.

  "On the floor in front of the cupboard."

  "It must have slipped from the box when I took out the mortgage. I wentover it with Nicolas Bouchard this morning."

  "Oh, does he hold it?"

  "Yes--and--"

  "He wants his money?"

  Jack nodded.

  "But what can we do? We can't possibly pay him."

  "Nothing, I guess, dear, except let him foreclose."

  "Would we get any money at all, then?"

  "Very little. Not enough to live on, certainly."

  "I wish I knew what these mean," she sighed wistfully, touching the paperstill between her brother's fingers. "If we could only find out, maybewe'd get enough money to pay Nicolas."

  Jack laughed in spite of his anxiety. "I'm afraid we'd all starve beforethey could be interpreted. Too bad, as things have gone, that I didn'tfarm as soon as I was old enough--"

  "Don't say that! We'll hope and plan for your college course--"

  "Desire, dear," protested her brother, gently but firmly, "it isabsolutely out of the question, even to think of such a thing."

  "But, Jack, every one should have some special goal in life, as anincentive if nothing else; and I'm _not_ going to give up planning forour education. One never knows when good fortune is waiting just aroundthe next corner to complete one's own efforts."

  "I guess _our_ goal will be to provide food and clothing for thechildren. I'm afraid it will be a hard pull for you and me to keep thefamily together--"

  "Oh, but we _must_ stay together, Jack," she cried, grasping his arm.

  "As far as I can see," he continued slowly, "the only thing to be done isto move to Halifax or Yarmouth, where I could get work of some kind.Should you mind very m
uch?"

  "Whatever you decide, I'll be willing to do," replied the girl bravely.

  "If it will make you any happier," continued Jack, giving her one of hisgrave, sweet smiles, "we'll place higher education among our day dreams."

  "If you folks ain't hungry, we are!" announced Priscilla, opening thedoor behind them so suddenly that both jumped.

  "You see?" laughed Jack, as he pulled Desire up from the low step.

  "I've just had a wonderful inspiration though," she whispered as theyentered the hall.