"Welcome!" the farmer exclaimed, as their footsteps paused on the threshold,

"Welcome, Basil, my friend! Come, take thy place on the settle

Close by the chimney-side, which is always empty without

thee;

Take from the shelf overhead thy pipe and the box of

tobacco;

Never so much thyself art thou as when through the

curling

Smoke of the pipe or the forge thy friendly and jovial face

gleams

Round and red as the harvest moon through the mist of the marshes."

Then, with a smile of content, thus answered Basil the blacksmith,

Taking with easy air the accustomed seat by the fireside"Benedict Bellefontaine, thou has ever thy jest and thy

ballad !

Ever in cheerfullest mood art thou, when others are filled with

Gloomy forebodings of ill, and see only ruin before them. Happy art thou, as if every day thou hadst picked up a horseshoe."

Pausing a moment, to take the pipe that Evangeline brought

him,

And with a coal from the embers had lighted, he slowly continued

"Four days now are passed since the English ships at their anchors

Ride in the Gaspereaus mouth, with their cannon pointed against us.

What their design may be is unknown; but all are commanded

On the morrow to meet in the church, where his Majesty's mandate

Will be proclaimed as law in the land. Alas! in the mean time

Many surmises of evil alarm the hearts of the people.” Then made answer the farmer: "Perhaps some friendlier

purpose

Brings these ships to our shores. Perhaps the harvests in England

By the untimely rains or untimelier heat have been blighted,

And from our bursting barns they would feed their cattle and children."

"Not so thinketh the folk in the village," said, warmly, the blacksmith,

Shaking his head, as in doubt; then, heaving a sigh, he continued

Louisburg is not forgotten, nor Beau Séjour, nor Port

Royal.

Many already have fled to the forest, and lurk on its outskirts,

"Not so thinketh the folk in the village,' said warmly, the blacksmith, Shaking his head, as in doubt."

Waiting with anxious hearts the dubious fate of to-morrow. Arms have been taken from us, and warlike weapons of all

kinds;

Nothing is left but the blacksmith's sledge and the scythe of the mower."

Then with a pleasant smile made answer the jovial farmer: 'Safer are we unarmed, in the midst of our flocks and our

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cornfields,

Safer within these peaceful dikes, besieged by the ocean,

Than were our fathers in forts, besieged by the enemy's

cannon.

Fear no evil, my friend, and to night may no shadow of

sorrow

Fall on this house and hearth; for this is the night of the

contract.

Built are the house and the barn.

village

The merry lads of the

Strongly have built them and well; and, breaking the glebe round about them,

Filled the barn with hay, and the house with food for a twelvemonth.

René Leblanc will be here anon, with his papers and ink

horn.

Shall we not then be g'ad, and rejoice in the joy of our children?"

As apart by the window she stood, with her hand in her

lover's,

Blushing Evangeline heard the words that her father had

spoken,

And as they died on his lips the worthy notary entered.

Children's children rode on his knee, and heard his great watch tick."

III.

BENT like a laboring oar, that toils in the serf of the ocean, Bent, but not broken, by age was the form of the notary

public;

Shocks of yellow hair, like the silken floss of the maize, hung

Over his shoulders; his forehead was high; and glasses with horn bows

Sat astride on his nose, with a look of wisdom supernal. Father of twenty children was he, and more than a hundred

Children's children rode on his knee, and heard his great watch tick.

Four long years in the times of the war had he languished ♪ captive,

Suffering much in an old French fort as the friend of the

English.

Now, though warier grown, without all guile or suspicion, Ripe in wisdom was he, but patient, and simple and childlike.

He was beloved by all, and most of all by the children; For he told them tales of the Loup-garou in the forest, And of the goblin that came in the night to water the horses,

And of the white Létiche, the ghost of a child who unchristened

Died, and was doomed to haunt unseen the chambers of

children;

And how on Christmas eve the oxen talked in the stable, And how the fever was cured by a spider shut up in a

nutshell,

And of the marvellous powers of four-leaved clover and horseshoes,

With whatsoever else was writ in the lore of the village. Then up rose from his seat by the fireside Basil the black

smith,

Knocked from his pipe the ashes, and slowly extending his right hand,

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'Father Leblanc," he exclaimed, "thou hast heard the talk ir. the village,

And, perchance, canst tell us some news of these ships and their errand."

Then with modest demeanor made answer the notary

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public

'Gossip enough have I heard, in sooth, yet am never the

wiser;

And what their errand may be I know not better than

others

Yet am I not of those who imagine some evil intention Brings them here, for we are at peace; and why then molest us?"

"God's name!" shouted the hasty and somewhat irascible blacksmith;

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'Must we in all things look for the how, and the why, and the wherefore?

Daily injustice is done, and might is the right of the

strongest !"

But, without heeding his warmth, continued the notary

public