Eighth Grade

Ye who believe in affection that hopes, and endures,
and is patient,
Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of
woman's devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the
pines of the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the
happy.

PART THE FIRST
I
In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin
of Minas,
Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-
Pre.
Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched
to the eastward,
Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks
without number. Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised
with labor incessant,
Shut out the turbulent tides; but at stated seasons the flood-gates
Opened and welcomed the sea to wander at will
o'er the meadows. West and south there were fields of flax and or
chards and cornfields
Spreading afar and unfenced o'er the plain; and
away to the northward
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on
the mountains
Seafogs pitched their tents, and mists from the
mighty
Atlantic Looked on the happy valley, but never from their
station descended. There, in the midst of its farms, reposed the
Acadian village.

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