cockerell THE BULB TO ALICE 393 



says that "How these simple, common words affected me more 

 than any other words I have heard in my life. They pierced me 

 to the heart. I had heard something terrible — too terrible to 

 think of." Later his mother comforted him with the assurances 

 of the immortality of the soul, but he had already experienced 

 despair. If he could have been taught at that early age the trans- 

 mutation of the golden red cherry leaf as it fluttered down, he 

 would have realized that in the earth is a wonderful laboratory where 

 old Caesar's body, no longer of use to him, would be changed into 

 the elements of soil and air by a process as marvelous and more 

 beautiful than the change wrought by the stroke of any fairy 

 wand, so that nothing of the old body of the beloved dog would re- 

 main in the hole in the earth in which it was placed, but would, 

 sooner than he could imagine, become a part of the free air and the 

 growing plant and live again in the sunshine. It is for the parents 

 and the Sunday-school teachers to reveal to the child the immortal- 

 ity of the soul, but it is the plain duty of the Nature-Study 

 teacher to reveal to the child the beauty of the chemistry of decay, 

 and the laws of physical immortality. 



The Bulb to Alice 



(with gift of tulip bulbs to a little girl) 



T. D. A. Cockerell 



Yes, you may bury me, put me away, 



Think I am dead, but I'll rise some day, 



Rise from the darkness, into the light, 



Though I slumbered long through the winter night, 



Fragrant and lovely my flowers shall be, 



And my joy in life shall be joy to thee; 



So cherish me now in my duller days, 



Hope with my hope to win the praise 



Of all who, living upon this earth, 



Are born again with the Spring's new birth. 



