But they speak more loudly and with plainer accents to the simple-hearted, to those who dwell among the great northern woods and in the empty places of the earth.

While yet Maria was dreaming of the city's distant wonders the first voice brought murmuringly to her memory a hundred forgotten charms of the land she wished to flee.
The marvel of the reappearing earth in the springtime after the long months of winter ...

The dreaded snow stealing away in prankish rivulets down every slope; the tree-roots first resurgent, then the mosses drenched with wet, soon the ground freed from its burden whereon one treads with delighted glances and sighs of happiness like the sick man who feels glad life returning to his veins ...
Later yet, the birches, alders, aspens swelling into bud; the laurel clothing itself in rosy bloom ...

The rough battle with the soil a seeming holiday to men no longer condemned to idleness; to draw the hard breath of toil from morn till eve a gracious favour ...
-- The cattle, at last set free from their shed, gallop to the pasture and glut themselves with the fresh grass.

All the new-born creatures--the calves, the fowls, the lambs, gambol in the sun and add daily to their stature like the hay and the barley.