Merrily laughed, and said they were nuns going into the chapel.

Oft on sledges in winter, as swift as the swoop of the

eagle,

Down the hillside bounding, they glided away o'er the 135 meadow.

Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests on

the rafters,

Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, which the swallow

Brings from the shore of the sea to restore the sight of its fledglings;

Lucky was he who found that stone in the nest of the

swallow!

Thus passed a few swift years, and they no longer 140

were children.

He was a valiant youth, and his face, like the face of

the morning,

Gladdened the earth with its light, and ripened thought into action.

She was a woman now, with the heart and hopes of a

Which, as the farmers believed, would load their 145

orchards with apples;

She too would bring to her husband's house delight

and abundance,

Filling it full of love and the ruddy faces of children.

II.

Now had the season returned, when the nights grow colder and longer,

And the retreating sun the sign of the Scorpion enters. Birds of passage sailed through the leaden air, from 150 the ice-bound,

Desolate northern bays to the shores of tropical

islands.

Harvests were gathered in; and wild with the winds

of September

Wrestled the trees of the forest, as Jacob of old with

the angel.

All the signs foretold a winter long and inclement.

Bees, with prophetic instinct of want, had hoarded 155

their honey

Till the hives overflowed; and the Indian hunters

asserted

Cold would the winter be, for thick was the fur of the

foxes.

Such was the advent of autumn. Then followed that

beautiful season,

Called by the pious Acadian peasants the Summer of

All-Saints!

Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; 160

and the landscape

Lay as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood.

Peace seemed to reign upon earth, and the restless

heart of the ocean

Was for a moment consoled. All sounds were in harmony blended.

Voices of children at play, the crowing of cocks in the

farm-yards,

Whir of wings in the drowsy air, and the cooing of 165

pigeons,

All were subdued and low as the murmurs of love, and

the great sun

Looked with the eye of love through the golden vapors

around him;

While arrayed in its robes of russet and scarlet and

yellow,

Bright with the sheen of the dew, each glittering tree

of the forest

Flashed like the plane-tree the Persian adorned with 170 mantles and jewels.

Now recommenced the reign of rest and affection

and stillness.

Day with its burden and heat had departed, and twilight descending

Brought back the evening star to the sky, and the herds to the homestead.

Pawing the ground they came, and resting their necks on each other,

And with their nostrils distended inhaling the fresh- 175

ness of evening.

Foremost, bearing the bell, Evangeline's beautiful

heifer,

Proud of her snow-white hide, and the ribbon that waved from her collar,

Quietly paced and slow, as if conscious of human

affection.

Then came the shepherd back with his bleating flocks

from the seaside,

Where was their favorite pasture. Behind them 180 followed the watch-dog,

Patient, full of importance, and grand in the pride of

his instinct,

Walking from side to side with a lordly air, and

superbly

Waving his bushy tail, and urging forward the

stragglers;

Regent of flocks was he when the shepherd slept;

their protector,

When from the forest at night, through the starry 185

silence, the wolves howled.

Late, with the rising moon, rcturned the wains from

the marshes,

Laden with briny hay, that filled the air with its

odor.

Cheerily neighed the steeds, with dew on their manes and their fetlocks,

While aloft on their shoulders the wooden and pon

derous saddles,

Painted with brilliant dyes, and adorned with tassels 190

of crimson,

Nodded in bright array, like hollyhocks heavy with

blossoms.

Patiently stood the cows meanwhile, and yielded their

udders

Unto the milkmaid's hand; whilst loud and in regular

cadence

Into the sounding pails the foaming streamlets

descended.

Lowing of cattle and peals of laughter were heard in 195 the farm-yard,

Echoed back by the barns. Anon they sank into

stillness;

Heavily closed, with a jarring sound, the valves of the barn-doors,

Rattled the wooden bars, and all for a season was silent.

In-doors, warm by the wide-mouthed fireplace, idly

the farmer

Sat in his elbow-chair, and watched how the flames 200 and the smoke-wreaths

Struggled together like foes in a burning city. Behind