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
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 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 woman. 
“Sunshine of Saint Eulalie” was she called; for that was the sunshine
Which, as the farmers believed, would load their 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 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 their honey
Till the hives overflowed; and the Indian bunters 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; 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 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 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 freshness of evening. 
Foremost, bearing the bell, Evangeline’s beautiful heifer,
Proud of her snow-white hide, and the ribbon that waved from her collar,