"And when, in pleasant harvest moons, The youthful huskers gather, Or sleigh-drives on the mountain ways Defy the winter weather,-- "In sugar-camps, when south and warm The winds of March are blowing, And sweetly from its thawing veins The maple's blood is flowing,-- "In summer, where some lilied pond Its virgin zone is baring, Or where the ruddy autumn fire Lights up the apple-paring,-- "The coarseness of a ruder time Her finer mirth displaces, A subtler sense of pleasure fills Each rustic sport she graces. "Her presence lends its warmth and health To all who come before it. If woman lost us Eden, such As she alone restore it. "For larger life and wiser aims The farmer is her debtor; Who holds to his another's heart Must needs be worse or better. "Through her his civic service shows A purer-toned ambition; No double consciousness divides The man and politician. "In party's doubtful ways he trusts Her instincts to determine; At the loud polls, the thought of her Recalls Christ's Mountain Sermon. "He owns her logic of the heart, And wisdom of unreason, Supplying, while he doubts and weighs, The needed word in season. "He sees with pride her richer thought, Her fancy's freer ranges; And love thus deepened to respect Is proof against all changes. "And if she walks at ease in ways His feet are slow to travel, And if she reads with cultured eyes What his may scarce unravel, "Still clearer, for her keener sight Of beauty and of wonder, He learns the meaning of the hills He dwelt from childhood under. "And higher, warmed with summer lights, Or winter-crowned and hoary, The ridged horizon lifts for him Its inner veils of glory. "He has his own free, bookless lore, The lessons nature taught him, The wisdom which the woods and hills And toiling men have brought him: "The steady force of will whereby Her flexile grace seems sweeter; The sturdy counterpoise which makes Her woman's life completer. "A latent fire of soul which lacks No breath of love to fan it; And wit, that, like his native brooks, Plays over solid granite. "How dwarfed against his manliness She sees the poor pretension, The wants, the aims, the follies, born Of fashion and convention. "How life behind its accidents Stands strong and self-sustaining, The human fact transcending all The losing and the gaining. "And so in grateful interchange Of teacher and of hearer, Their lives their true distinctness keep While daily drawing nearer. "And if the husband or the wife In home's strong light discovers Such slight defaults as failed to meet The blinded eyes of lovers,