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ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



So, from the pinched soil of a churlish fate, 



True hearts compel the sap of sturdier growth, 

 So between earth and heaven stand simply great, 



That these shall seem but their attendants both ; 

 For nature's forces, with obedient zeal 



Wait on the rooted faith and oaken will, 

 As quickly the pretender's cheat they feel, 



And turn mad Pucks to flout and mock him still. 



Lord ! all Thy works are lessons each contains 



Some emblem of man's all-containing soul ; 

 Shall he make fruitless all Thy glorious pains, 



Delving within Thy grace an eyeless mole ? 

 Make me the least of Thy Dodona-grove, 



Cause me some message of Thy truth to bring, 

 Speak but a word through me, nor let Thy love 



Among my boughs disdain to perch and sing. 



[James Russell Lowell. 



Live oak tree, Audubon Park, New Orleans, antedating the settlement of that country. 



UNDER THE WILLOWS. 



This willow is as old to me as life; 



And under it full often have I stretched, 



Feeling the warm earth like a thing alive, 



And gathering virtue in at every pore 



Till it possessed me wholly, and thought ceased, 



Or was transfused in something to which thought 



Is coarse and dull of sense. Myself was lost, 



Gone from me like an ache, and what remained 



Became a part of the universal joy. 



My soul went forth, and, mingling with the tree, 



Danced in the leaves ; or, floating in the cloud, 



Saw its white double in the stream below. 



[Lowell. 



