But as a traveller follows a streamlet's course | Stood the houses of planters, with negrothrough the valley; cabins and dovecots. Far from its margin at times, and seeing They were approaching the region where reigns perpetual summer,

the gleam of its water

of

Here and there, in some open space, and Where, through the golden coast, and groves at intervals only; orange and citron, Then drawing nearer its banks, through sylvan Sweeps with majestic curve the river away glooms that conceal it, to the eastward.

Though he beheld it not, he can hear its They, too, swerved from their course; and, continuous murmur; entering the Bayou of Plaquemine, Happy, at length, if he find the spot where Soon were they lost in a maze of sluggish it reaches an outlet.

II.

and devious waters,

Which, like a network of steel, extended in every direction.

It was the month of May. Far down the Over their heads the towering and tenebrous boughs of the cypress

Beautiful River,

Past the Ohio shore, and past the mouth Met in a dusky arch, and trailing mosses in mid air

of the Wabash,

Into the golden stream of the broad and Waved like banners that hang on the walls of ancient cathedrals.

swift Mississippi, Floated a cumbrous boat, that was rowed by Deathlike the silence seemed, and unbroken,

Acadian boatmen.

save by the herons

It was a band of exiles; a raft, as it were, Home to their roosts in the cedar-trees re

from the shipwrecked

turning at sunset,

Nation, scattered along the coast, now float- Or by the owl as he greeted the moon with

ing together,

Bound by the bonds of a common belief and a common misfortune;

Men and women and children, who, guided by-hope or by hearsay,

demoniac laughter.

Lovely the moonlight was as it glanced and gleamed on the water,

Gleamed on the columns of cypress and cedar sustaining the arches,

Sought for their kith and their kin among Down through whose broken vaults it fell the few-acred farmers

as through chinks in a ruin.

On the Acadian coast, and the prairies of Dreamlike, and indistinct, and strange were

fair Opelousas.

all things around them;

With them Evangeline went, and her guide, And o'er their spirits there came a feeling

the Father Felician.

of wonder and sadness,

Onward, o'er sunken sands, through a wil- Strange forebodings of ill, unseen and that

Now through rushing chutes, among green So, at the hoof-beats of fate, with sad

islands, where plumelike

Cotton-trees nodded their shadowy crests,
they swept with the current,
Then emerged into broad lagoons, where
silvery sand-bars

Lay in the stream, and along the wimpling

waves of their margin, Shining with snow-white plumes, large flocks of pelicans waded. Level the landscape grew, and along the shores of the river, Shaded by china-trees, in the midst of luxuriant gardens,

forebodings of evil,

Shrinks and closes the heart, ere the stroke
of doom has attained it.
But Evangeline's heart was sustained by a
vision, that faintly
Floated before her eyes, and beckoned her
on through the moonlight.
It was the thought of her brain that assumed
the shap of a phantom.
Through those shadowy aisles had Gabriel
wandered before her,
And every stroke of the oar now brought
him nearer and nearer.

Then in his place, at the prow of the boat, Safely their boat was moored; and scattered rose one of the oarsmen, about on the greensward,

And, as a signal sound, if others like them Tired with their midnight toil, the weary

peradventure Sailed on those gloomy and midnight streams,

blew a blast on his bugle. Wild through the dark colonnades and corridors leafy the blast rang,

Breaking the seal of silence, and giving tongues to the forest.

Over

travellers slumbered.

them vast and high extended the

cope of a cedar.

Swinging from its great arms, the trumpetflower and the grape vine

Hung their ladder of ropes aloft, like the ladder of Jacob,

Soundless above them the banners of moss On whose pendulous stairs the angels just stirred to the music.

ascending, descending,

Multitudinous echoes awoke and died in the Were the swift humming birds, that flitted

distance,

Over the watery floor, and beneath the re

verberant branches;

from blossom to blossom.

Such was the vision Evangeline saw as she slumbered beneath it.

But not a voice replied; no answer came Filled was her heart with love, and the

from the darkness;

And when the echoes had ceased, like a
sense of pain was the silence.
Then Evangeline slept, but the boatmen
rowed through the midnight,
Silent at times, and then singing familiar
Canadian boat-songs,

Such as they sang of old on their own
Acadian rivers.

And through the night were heard the mys-
terious sounds of the desert,

dawn of an opening heaven Lighted her soul in sleep with the glory of regions celestial.

Nearer and ever nearer, among the numberless islands,

Darted a light, swift boat, that sped away o'er the water,

Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters and trappers.

Far off, indistinct, as of wave or wind in Northward its prow was turned, to the land the forest, of the bison and beaver. Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the At the helm sat a youth, with countenance roar of the grim alligator.

Thus, ere another noon they emerged
from those shades; and before them

Lay, in the golden sun, the lakes of the
Atchafalaya.

thoughtful and careworn,

Dark and neglected locks overshadowed his brow, and a sadness

Somewhat beyond his years on his face was legibly written.

Gabriel was it, who weary with waiting, unhappy and restless,

Water-lilies in myriads rocked on the slight Sought in the Western wilds oblivion of

undulations

Made by the passing oars, and resplendent in beauty, the lotus

self and of sorrow.

Swiftly they glided along, close under the lee of the island,

Lifted her golden crown above the heads of But by the opposite bank, and behind a the boatmen.

screen of palmettoes,

Faint was the air with the odorous breath So that they saw not the boat, where it lay of magnolia blossoms, concealed in the willows,

And with the heat of noon; and numberless And undisturbed by the dash of their oars, sylvan islands, and unseen, were the sleepers; Fragrant and thickly embowered with blos- Angel of God there none to awaken the soming hedges of roses,

slumbering maiden!

Near to whose shores they glided along, Swiftly they glided away, like the shade of invited to slumber. a cloud on the prairie.

Soon by the fairest of these their weary After the sound of their oars on the tholes had died in the distance,

oars were suspended.

Under the boughs of a Wachita willow, that As from a magic trance the sleepers awoke, and the maiden

grew by the margin,

Said with a sigh to the friendly priest, Touched by the magic spell, the sacred ,,O Father Felician! fountains of feeling

Something says in my heart that near me Glowed with the light of love, as the skies Gabriel wanders. and waters around her.

Is it a foolish dream, an idle and vague Then from a neighbouring thicket the mockingbird, wildest of singers,

superstition? Or has an angel passed, and revealed the Swinging aloft on a willow spray that hung truth to my spirit?" o'er the water,

Then, with a blush, she added,

my credulous fancy!

,,Alas for Shook from his little throat such floods of delicious music,

Unto ears like thine such words as these That the whole air and the woods and the waves seemed silent to listen.

then soaring to madness

have no meaning." But made answer the reverend man, and Plaintive at first were the tones and sad; he smiled as he answered, „Daughter, thy words are not idle; nor are they to me without meaning. Feeling is deep and still; and the word that floats on the surface

Seemed they to follow or guide the revels of frenzied Bacchantes.

Then single notes were heard, in sorrowful, low lamentation;

Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays where Till, having gathered them all, he flung the anchor is hidden. them abroad in derision,

Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what As when, after a storm, a gust of wind the world calls illusions.

through the tree tops

Gabriel truly is near thee; for not far away Shakes down the rattling rain in a crystal shower on the branches.

to the southward,

On the banks of the Têche, are the towns With such a prelude as this, and hearts of St. Maur and St. Martin.

There the long-wandering bride shall be given again to her bridegroom, There the long-absent pastor regain his flock and his sheepfold.

Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of fruit-trees;

Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of heavens

Bending above, and resting its dome on
the walls of the forest.

They who dwell there have named it the
Eden of Louisiana."

that throbbed with emotion, Slowly they entered the Têche, where it

flows through the green Opelousas, And through the amber air, above the crest of the woodland,

Saw the column of smoke that arose from
a neighbouring dwelling;
Sounds of a horn they heard, and the distant
lowing of cattle.

III.

NEAR to the bank of the river, o'ershadowed by oaks, from whose branches Garlands of Spanish moss and mystic mistletoe flaunted,

And with these words of cheer they arose Such as the druids cut down with golden and continued their journey. hatchets at yule-tide,

Softly the evening came. The sun from Stood, secluded and still, in the house of the western horizon the herdsman. A garden

Like a magician extended his golden wand Girded it round about with a belt of lux

At each end of the house, amid the flowers And the whole mass became a cloud, a shade in the distance.

of the garden, Stationed the dovecots were, as love's per- Then, as the herdsman turned to the house, through the gate of the garden

petual symbol, Scenes of endless wooing, and endless con- Saw he the forms of the priest and the tentions of rivals. maiden advancing to meet him.

Silence reigned o'er the place. The line of Suddenly down from his horse he sprang in amazement, and forward

shadow and sunshine

Ran near the tops of the trees; but the Rushed with extended arms and exclamahouse itself was in shadow, tions of wonder;

And from its chimney-top, ascending and When they beheld his face, they recognised slowly expanding Basil the blacksmith.

Into the evening air, a thin blue column of Hearty his welcome was, as he led his

guests to the garden.

smoke rose. In the rear of the house, from the garden There in an arbour of roses with endless gate, ran a pathway question and answer Through the great groves of oaks to the Gave they vent to their hearts, and renewed skirts of the limitless prairie, their friendly embraces,

Into whose sea of flowers the sun was Laughing and weeping by turns, or sitting silent and thoughtful.

slowly descending.

Full in his track of light, like ships with Thoughtful, for Gabriel came not; and now

shadowy canvas

Hanging loose from their spars in a motionless calm in the tropics,

Stood a cluster of cotton-trees, with cordage of grape-vines.

dark doubts and misgivings

Stole o'er the maiden's heart; and Basil, somewhat embarrassed,

Broke the silence, and said, -,,If you came
by the Atchafalaya

How have you nowhere encountered my
Gabriel's boat on the bayous?"

Just where the woodlands met the flowery Over Evangeline's face at the words of

surf of the prairie,

Mounted upon his horse, with Spanish saddle

and stirrups,

Basil a shade passed.

Tears came into her eyes, and she said, with a tremulous accent,

Sat a herdsman, arrayed in gaiters and,,Gone? is Gabriel gone?" and, concealing

doublet of deerskin.

her face on his shoulder,

Broad and brown was the face that from All her o'erburdened heart gave way, and

under the Spanish sombrero

she wept and lamented.

Gazed on the peaceful scene, with the lordly Then the good Basil said, and his voice look of its master. grew blithe as he said it, Round about him were numberless herds,,Be of good cheer, my child; it is only to

of kine, that were grazing

Quietly in the meadows, and breathing the

vapoury freshness

That uprose from the river, and spread itself over the landscape.

day he departed.

Foolish boy! he has left me alone with my herds and my horses.

Moody and restless grown, and tried and troubled, his spirit

Slowly lifting the horn that hung at his Could no longer endure the calm of this

Suddenly out of the grass the long white He at length had become so tedious to men

horns of the cattle

and to maidens,

Rose like flakes of foam on the adverse Tedious even to me, that at length I becurrents of ocean. thought me, and sent him

Silent a moment they gazed, then bellowing Unto the town of Adayes to trade for mules with the Spaniards,

rushed o'er the prairie,

Thence he will follow the Indian trails to All was silent without, and, illuming the the Ozark Mountains, landscape with silver, Hunting for furs in the forests, on rivers Fair rose the dewy moon and the myriad stars; but within doors,

trapping the beaver.

Therefore be of good cheer; we will follow Brighter than these, shone the faces of friends in the glimmering lamplight.

the fugitive lover;

He is not far on his way, and the Fates and the streams are against him.

Up and away to-morrow, and through the red dew of the morning

Then from his station aloft, at the head of the table, the herdsman

Poured forth his heart and his wine together in endless profusion.

We will follow him fast, and bring him Lighting his pipe, that was filled with

Borne aloft on his comrades' arms, came Welcome once more to a home, that is betMichael the fiddler. ter perchance than the old one!

Long under Basil's roof had he lived like Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like the rivers;

a god on Olympus,

Having no other care than dispensing mu- Here no stony ground provokes the wrath

sic to mortals.

Far renowned was he for his silver locks and his fiddle.

„Long live Michael," they cried,,,our brave Acadian minstrel !"

As they bore him aloft in triumphal procession; and straightway

Father Felician advanced with Evangeline, greeting the old man

of the farmer.

Smoothly the ploughshare runs through the soil as a keel through the water. All the year round the orange-groves are in blossom; and grass grows

More in a single night than a whole Canadian summer.

Here, too, numberless herds run wild and unclaimed in the prairies;

Kindly and oft, and recalling the past, Here, too, lands may be had for the asking, and forests of timber

while Basil, enraptured,

Hailed with hilarious joy his old compa- With a few blows of the axe are hewn and

nions and gossips,

Laughing loud and long, and embracing mothers and daughters.

framed into houses.

After your houses are built, and your fields are yellow with harvests,

Much they marvelled to see the wealth of No King George of England shall drive you away from your homesteads,

the ci-devant blacksmith,

triarchal demeanour;

All his domains and his herds, and his pa- Burning your dwellings and barns, and stealing your farms and your cattle." Much they marvelled to hear his tales of Speaking these words, he blew a wrathful the soil and the climate, cloud from his nostrils,

And of the prairies, whose numberless herds And his huge, brawny hand came thundering were his who would take them;

Each one thought in his heart, that he, too, would go and do likewise.

down on the table,

So that the guests all started; and Father
Felician, astounded,

Thus they ascended the steps, and, cross- Suddenly paused, with a pinch of snuff half

ing the airy verandah,

way to his nostrils.

Entered the hall of the house, where al- But the brave Basil resumed, and his words ready the supper of Basil were milder and gayer:

Waited his late return; and they rested and,,Only beware of the fever, my friends, befeasted together.

ware of the fever!

For it is not like that of our cold Acadian climate,

Over the joyous feast the sudden dark- Cured by wearing a spider hung round one's neck in a nutshell!"

ness descended.