10 OVER ON THE ISLAND

to her native shore—leaving grandfather to light another beacon .

In the winter the cold and heavy ice-boats took the place of the row-boats. They were as tiresome as the row-boats, however, for they had to be pulled by hand. In those days a journey was an event No wonder.

4

The best way to see the Island is to walk! But, ”who would?” is the usual answer to that assertion. Yet, perhaps, there is no district in Canada which rewards the hiker so bounteously. An unquestioning spirit of beauty seems to brood over everything. Lonely shores. Winding uplands. Intriguing paths. No wonder it is called “The Garden of the Gulf!” It lacks only Tennyson to issue his time-worn invitation to Maud!

The next, and almost as good a means of travel, is the bicycle. The Island is a cyclist’s paradise. It is especially so after a rain when the dark red roads gleam darker and wetter in the twilight, when the groves of dark green spruce stand out like sentinels, and the little by-paths seem to lose themselves in the shelter of the woods.

But the way nearly every one goes is by car. And that is a grand way! It is pleasant to lie back against soft cushions while the landscape is brought right up to the car window to be looked at. But it is so very pleasant that when it is time to climb out of the car to explore a fort, a chapel, or a cliff, it is usually too much effort to move. A car is such a lazy thing!