A PLAGUE OF MICE 151

has the dress, but she is too big for it now. Her hair was arranged in curls at the neck.

”Were you excited, Mother?” asks the tiniest one, with starry eyes.

“ Excited? Yes!” the mother admits for the fortieth time.

And she is lost in reminiscences.

Then, I see her again as an old lady. Still she is the foremost lady in the settlement, for hasn’t she danced with the king himself? That distinction sets her apart and above all the others. Her precedence is not disputed. For no other lady in the colony has ever had that honour . . .

She danced with the king.

It was, apparently, the crowning achievement of her life.

To me she is an Island enigma. For George III never did visit Edinburgh. Furthermore, in 1818, he was over eighty—and insane! Perhaps it was George IV? Well . . . no. George IV did not become king until 1820, and did not visit Edinburgh until 1822. Elizabeth, I regret to say, must have had a purely mythical encounter with Royalty. But, even a mythical encounter seems to have been quite sufficient to maintain her social superiority over her neighbours.

A thousand and one questions pop into my mind. And there is no answer—except the echo of yore—~“I danced with the king ”

And so, on to East Point. The Micmacs realized the significance of this point, for they called it Kes- pemenegek, meaning “the end of an island.” Out over the Gulf the sea-gulls swoop and dart like skilled