NATURE'S MEMORIAL DAY 185 



Whatever the chisel may have graven on these 

 rude slate stones, the kindly sun and rain and the 

 slow sobbing of the earth's bosom under frost 

 and thaw have taught them " de mortuis nil nisi 

 bonum " till they voice it in phrases which none 

 who pass may fail to read. The lichens have 

 written it and the actions of the slate speak louder 

 than the words of the inscriptions. We in our 

 Memorial Day offerings tell for a brief hour only 

 what the good gray earth has been saying the 

 year through, and we say it best, as she does, in 

 flowers and tears. Nature's Memorial Days 

 began with the first grave and have continued 

 ever since. Ours, which began with our mourning 

 for dead heroes of the Civil War, has extended 

 since to those of all wars and moves yearly nearer 

 to Nature's all-forgiving, all-loving teaching. 

 Our lesson will be complete when we understand 

 that all who have lived are heroes and that toward 

 all who are dead we should bear constant loving 

 remembrance. The sun and the rain lead the 

 gentler things of earth to this all through the old 

 cemetery where, since the pioneers of the town, 

 have come the heroes of the Revolution, of 1812, 



