White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks as brown as the oak-leaves.

Fair was she to behold, that maiden of seventeen

summers.

Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the thorn by the way-side,

Black, yet how softly they gleamed beneath the brown shade of her tresses!

5 Sweet was her breath as the breath of kine that feed in the meadows.

When in the harvest heat she bore to the reapers at

noontide

Flagons of home-brewed ale, ah! fair in sooth was the maiden.

Fairer was she when, on Sunday morn, while the bell from its turret

Sprinkled with holy sounds the air, as the priest with his hyssop

Io Sprinkles the congregation, and scatters blessings upon them,

15

Down the long street she passed, with her chaplet of beads and her missal,

Wearing her Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, and the ear-rings,

Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as an heirloom,

Handed down from mother to child, through long generations.

But a celestial brightness—a more ethereal beauty

9. Hyssop. In Scripture the hyssop was a plant of which the twigs were used to sprinkle the congregation in the cere mony of purification.

11. Chaplet. A string of beads used by Roman Catholics in counting a form of prayer, entitled the Rosary. Note that the word bead originally means a prayer.

11. Missal. A prayer-book used by Roman Catholics.

Shone on her face and encircled her form, when,

after confession,

Homeward serenely she walked with God's benediction upon her.

When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.

Firmly builded with rafters of oak, the house of the farmer

Stood on the side of a hill commanding the sea; and 5 a shady

Sycamore grew by the door, with a woodbine wreathing around it.

Rudely carved was the porch, with seats beneath; and a footpath

Led through an orchard wide, and disappeared in the meadow.

Under the sycamore-tree were hives overhung by a

pent-house,

Such as the traveler sees in regions remote by the 10 roadside,

Built o'er a box for the poor, or the blessed image of

Mary.

Farther down, on the slope of the hill, was the well with its moss-grown

Bucket, fastened with iron, and near it a trough for the horses.

Shielding the house from storms, on the north, were the barns and the farm-yard.

There stood the broad-wheeled wains and the antique plows and the harrows ;

15

9. Pent-house.

The traveler in the Catholic cantons of Switzerland and in the Tyrol frequently meets at cross-roads a figure of the Virgin, or some saint, protected from the weather by the roughest pent house of two or three boards.

15. Wains. Wagons.

There were the folds for the sheep; and there, in his feathered seraglio,

Strutted the lordly turkey, and crowed the cock, with the selfsame

Voice that in ages of old had startled the penitent Peter.

Bursting with hay were the barns, themselves a village. In each one

5 Far o'er the gable projected a roof of thatch; and a

staircase,

Under the sheltering eaves, led up to the odorous

corn-loft.

There too the dove-cot stood, with its meek and innocent inmates

Murmuring ever of love; while above in the variant breezes

Numberless noisy weathercocks rattled and sang of mutation.

10 Thus, at peace with God and the world, the farmer of Grand-Pré

Lived on his sunny farm, and Evangeline governed his household.

Many a youth, as he knelt in the church and opened his missal,

Fixed his eyes upon her, as the saint of his deepest devotion;

Happy was he who might touch her hand or the hem of her garment!

15 Many a suitor came to her door, by the darkness befriended,

And as he knocked and waited to hear the sound of

her footsteps,

1. Seraglio. First, the palace where the wives of Turkish noblemen are shut up; second, the wives themselves (harem).

Knew not which beat the louder, his heart or the knocker of iron;

Or at the joyous feast of the Patron Saint of the vil

lage,

Bolder grew, and pressed her hand in the dance as he whispered

Hurried words of love, that seemed a part of the music.

But, among all who came, young Gabriel only was 5 welcome;

Gabriel Lajeunesse, the son of Basil the blacksmith, Who was a mighty man in the village, and honored of all men;

For since the birth of time, throughout all ages and nations,

Has the craft of the smith been held in repute by the

people.

Basil was Benedict's friend. Their children from 10 earliest childhood

Grew up together as brother and sister, and Father Felician,

Priest and pedagogue both in the village, had taught them their letters

Out of the selfsame book, with the hymns of the church and the plain-song.

But when the hymn was sung, and the daily lesson completed,

Swiftly they hurried away to the forge of Basil the 15 blacksmith.

8. Since the birth of time... the craft of the smith. From the time of Tubal Cain (Genesis iv. 23) onwards. In the middle ages the use of armor made the craft of the smith in special repute. See Harry of the Wynd in Fair Maid of Perth. Compare in classic times the worship of Vulcan and Hephæstus. 13. Plain - song. The Gregorian chant prescribed in the Roman Catholic Church. It is sung in unison, in tones of equal length, and rarely extending beyond the compass of an octave.

5

There at the door they stood, with wondering eyes to behold him

Take in his leathern lap the hoof of the horse as a plaything,

Nailing the shoe in its place; while near him the tire of the cart-wheel

Lay like a fiery snake, coiled round in a circle of cinders.

Oft on autumnal eves, when without in the gathering darkness

Bursting with light seemed the smithy, through every cranny and crevice,

Warm by the forge within they watched the laboring bellows,

And as its panting ceased, and the sparks expired in the ashes,

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

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

eagle,

Down the hill-side bounding, they glided away o'er the meadow.

Oft in the barns they climbed to the populous nests on the rafters,

Seeking with eager eyes that wondrous stone, which the swallow

9. Nuns going intc the chapel. There is a somewhat similar saying among the Germans. When the sparks in a burning piece of paper go out one after another, they say, "The people are going out of church," and the last spark is called the "clerk." (DICKMAN.)

13. Wondrous stone. Pliny tells of a kind of precious stone, like an agate, called the "swallow's stone." The miraculous properties are, however, a French addition to the story. "The villagers of tell of a sure means of obtaining this stone. You must first put out the eyes of one of the swallow's young, whereupon the mother-bird will immediately go in quest of the stone. When she has found it, and cured her fledgling by its aid, she is careful to hide the talisman. But if you take the pre