is still alive,—the man whom I killed. Alas! I am old and about to die, but, my son, by the love and compassion of God, let me [Pg 24]entreat you to carry out the wishes of your father. Seek the family of the Frenchman; make restitution, even to the half of your goods, or you will have no prosperity in this world nor any happiness in the world to come. If you are unable to carry out this, my last wish, let this letter be handed to your children. Eschew riotous living, and fold in your heart my saying, that the forcible dispossession of the Acadien people from their land and properties was an unrighteous and unholy act, brought about chiefly by the lust of hatred and greed on the part of that iniquitous man, Governor Lawrence, of this province, and his counsellors. [Pg 24] May God have mercy on my soul. Your father, soon to be a clod of clay, John Matthew Nimmo. John Matthew Nimmo. Halifax, May 9, 1800. Halifax With a slight shudder Vesper dropped the letter back in the box and wiped the dust from his fingers. "Unhappy old man,—there is not the slightest evidence that his callous son Thomas paid any heed to his exhortations. I can imagine the contempt with which he would throw this letter aside; he would probably remark that his father had lost his mind. And yet was it a superstition about altering the fortunes of the family that made him shortly after exchange his father's grant of land in Nova Scotia for one in this State?" and he picked up another faded document, this one of parchment and containing a record of the transfer of certain estates in the vicinity of the town of Boston to Thomas Nimmo,[Pg 25] removing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the State of Massachusetts. [Pg 25] "Then Thomas got burnt for despising the commands of his father; but my poor sire,—where does his guilt come in? He did not know of the existence of this letter,—that I could swear, for with his kind heart and streak of romance he would have looked up this Acadien ghost and laid it. If I were also romantic, I should say it killed him. As it is, I shall stick to my present opinion that he
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