HENRY W. LONGFELLOW

" Some -what apart fro-n the village, and neafor the Basin of Minas,

B -nedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of G; and-Pré,

Dw. It on his goodly aores, and with him, directing his liousihold,

Gentle Evantfeline lived, his child, and the pride of the Tillage,

Stalwart, and stately inform was the man of seventy winters ;

Hearty and pah- W is h -, au Oik tli it is covenid With snow-flakes ;

White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks as hrriwn aa the o;ik-leareB.

Fair was ••he to be hold, th t maiden of seveuteen summers.

Black Weïe lier eyes as th ■ berry ihat groWs on the thorn by the way-side,

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

Sweet was lier brealh as the brcatli of kine that feed In the meadows,

When in the harvest Iieat she bors to the leaprs ai noon-tide,

Flagons of home brewed aie, ah I fair in sooth was the ma den.

Fairer w.is she wh ■n, on S.inday inorn, while the bell fro a its tiirret

Sprinkles with holy sounds the air, as the p iest with his hyssop

Sirinkles the congrégation, and scatters bU-ssings upon them,

Down the long srreet i^he passed. with her chaplet of beads and her missal,

"Wearing her Nor ii:ind t'ap, and her kirtle of blue, and the ear-rings

Bro ght in the olden time from France, and since, aa an heirlooin,

il..nded down fro ii raother to child through long Renerations.

But a celestial brightness— a ruore elhereal beauty —

Showne ou he face and encircled her form, when, after confession

Home war.I serenely she walked with God's bened ction upon her,

When she had pasBtd, it seemed like the ceasing of exqulsite musio.''

HÀPPOllT