Chapter II

Now on the mountain morning laughed with light-- With light and all the future in her face, For there she looked on many a far-off place And wild adventurous sight, For which the mad young autumn wind hallooed with might And dared the roaring mill-brook to the race, Where blue-jays screamed beyond the pine-dark pool-- “To school!--To school!”

Blackcoated, Eben took the barefoot trail, Holding with wary hand his Sunday boots; Harsh catbirds mocked his whistling with their hoots; Under his swallowtail Against his hip-strap bumping, clinked his dinner pail; Frost maples flamed, lone thrushes touched their lutes; Gray squirrels bobbed, with tails stiff curved to backs, To eye his tracks.

Soon at the lonely crossroads he passed by The little one-room schoolhouse. He peered in. There stood the bench where he had often been Admonished flagrantly To drone his numbers: now to this he said good-bye For mightier lure of more romantic scene: Good-bye to childish rule and homely chore Forevermore!

All day he hastened like the flying cloud Breathless above him, big with dreams, yet dumb. With tightened jaw he chewed the tart spruce gum, And muttered half aloud Huge oracles. At last, where thro’ the pine-tops bowed The sun, it rose!--His heart beat like a drum. There, there it rose--his tower of prophecy: The Academy!