20 ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



It is much in favor of the day and its appropriate observance that it 

 may afford such opportunities for bringing the young so pleasantly into 

 contact with Nature, and opening their minds in their most impressible 

 time to her healthy and happy influences. It is good to take the pupils 

 out of the schoolroom for a day into the open air, into Nature's school 

 place. And it would be a good thing if they could be taken into the 

 fields and groves, under the judicious guidance of their teachers, not 

 only once a year, but oftener. An occasional half-holiday thus taken 

 would be of more real benefit, more instructive, than any equal portion 

 of time spent in the schoolroom. It would be taking the children to 

 the original fountains of knowledge, where they would gain it at first 

 and not at second hand. Fresh flowers are better than those of the 

 herbarium. It would give scope and stimulus to their observing facul- 

 ties, the first to open and the first which offer themselves to be trained 

 for proper use, on whose proper use also the success and happiness of 

 after life chiefly depend. As Wordsworth says: 



Nature never did betray 

 The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, 

 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 

 From joy to joy; for she can so inform 

 The mind that is within us, so impress 

 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 

 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 

 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 

 Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 

 The dreary intercourse of daily life 

 Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb 

 Our cheerful faith that all which we behold 

 Is full of blessing. 



It had been a thousand times better for some if, instead of moiling 

 over books in the schoolroom, they had been allowed to spend more of 

 their younger days in the open world, the school of Nature, to be com- 

 panions of the birds, listening to their songs and learning their habits, 

 strolling along the brooks, following their windings through wood and 

 meadow, and coming home laden with the treasures which Nature is ever 

 ready to bestow upon the youngest child or the oldest man who has an 

 eye to see and a heart to feel their beauty. 



Happily, the methods of the schoolroom are better than they were, 

 though there is still room for improvement. Nature studies have found 

 some place in them. But these would be made more interesting and 

 more effective if teacher and pupils together were oftener to get face to 

 face with Nature herself, the great teacher. 



METHODS OF OBSERVING ARBOR DAY. 



The observance of Arbor Day may be as various in method as the 

 tastes and inclinations of those engaged in it. Much will depend upon 

 the teacher; much, also, upon the character of the school and the age 

 and previous training of the pupils. If the teacher has a moderate 

 share of inventiveness there will be little difficulty. The chief thing 



