Forest Songs and Poetry. 87 



use of the students. An experimental forest station, with experi- 

 mental garden, and a station for making and recording meteoro- 

 logical observations. For the use of the chemical laboratory ' and 

 chemical agents a charge of eight marks, or eight shillings, per session 

 is made to the students of practical chemistry. 



There is also a reading-room provided with newspapers and periodi- 

 cals, for the purchase of which a charge of four marks each session i& 

 made. 



Forest Songs and Poetry. 



THE WOODMAN'S CRAFT. 



0, THE woodman's craft is a goodly craft, 



He sings through suu and showers ; 

 As strong and brown as his hatchet's haft, 

 As simple as the flowers ; 



Of pleasure or toil he nothing lacks, 

 As he carols his song and he swings his axe 

 In spring-decked forest bowers. 



\yhen all the winds of March are blown, 



And apple boughs are budding ; 

 When swallows from the south have flown, 

 And little cloudlets, scudding 



Across the sun, scarce dim his rays, 

 Full merry and fair are the woodland ways 

 When April streams are flooding. 



Beneath the ash, whose barren head 



Still looms all dark and frowning — 

 Beneath the gracious green and red 

 That makes the youug oak's crowning — 

 Last autumn's leaves can scarcely hide 

 The tufts of primrose, morning-eyed, 

 With cloak of winter's browning. 



Then merrily ring the axes keen 



Where stalwart arms are swinging ; 

 And goodly shows the broad blade's sheen, 

 The sunbeams backward flinging, 



As thicket's marge and hidden glades 

 Ring clearer than the ringing blades 

 With woodmen's jovial singing. 



A goodly craft, and a gentle craft, 



And a craft no evil fearing. 

 Is theirs who live by helve and haft 

 Where thickets are for clearing, 



As the good man's hatchet swings aloft, 

 And the good wife sings from the binding-croft, 

 When summer days are nearing. 



B. Montgomerie Rankin, in ^^ London Society ^ 



