The crash and thunder of the falling pines.

Where the tilled earth, with all its fields set free,

Naked and yellow from the harvest lies,

By many a loft and busy granary,

The hum and tumult of the threshers rise;

There the tanned farmers labor without slack,

Till twilight deepens round the spouting mill,

Feeding the loosened sheaves, or with fierce will

Pitching waist-deep upon the dusky stack.

Still a brief while, ere the old year quite pass,