Eighth Grade

Columns of pale blue smoke, like clouds of incense
ascending,
Rose from a hundred hearths, the homes of peace
and contentment
Thus dwelt together in love these simple Acadian
farmers,--
Dwelt in the love of God and man. Alike were they
free from
Fear, that reigns with the tyrant, and envy, the vice
of republics.
Neither locks had they to their doors, nor bars to
their windows;
But their dwellings were open as day and the
hearts of the owners;
There the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in
abundance.

Somewhat apart from the village, and nearer the
Basin of Minas,
Benedict Bellefontaine, the wealthiest farmer of
Grand-Pre.
Dwelt on his goodly acres; and with him directing
his household,
Gentle Evangeline lived, his child, and the pride of
the village.
Stalworth and steady in form was the man of
seventy winters;
Hearty and hale was he, an oak that is covered
with snowflakes;
White as the snow were his locks, and his cheeks
as brown as the oak-leaves.
Fair was she to behold: that maiden of seventeen
summers;
Black were her eyes as the berry that grows on the
thorn by the wayside.

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