ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 



73 



LEAP-TONGUES OP THE FOREST. 



The leaf-tongues of the forest, the flower- 

 lips of the sod, 



The happy birds that hynrn their rapture in 

 the ear of God, 



The summer wind that bringeth music over 

 land and sea, 



Have each a voice that singeth this sweet 

 song of songs to me ; 



"This world is full of beauty, like other 

 worlds above 



And if we did our duty, it might be full of 



love." [Gerald Masaey. 



LESSONS OP THE TREES. 



I shall speak of trees as we see tlrem, love them, adore them in the fields where 

 they are alive, holding their green sunshades over our heads, talking to us with 

 their hundred thousand whispering tongues, looking down on us with that sweet 

 meekness "which belongs to huge but limited organism which one sees most in the 

 patient posture, the outstretched arms, and the heavy drooping robes of these vast 

 beings, endowed with life, but not with soul which outgrow us and outlive us, but 

 stand helpless, poor things, while nature dresses and undresses them. Holmes. 



IMPORTANCE OF FORESTS. 



Keeping up a fit proportion of forests to arable land is the prime condition of 

 human health. If the trees go, men must decay. Whosoever works for the forests 

 works for the happiness and permanence of our civilization. A tree may be an 

 obstruction, but it is never useless. Now is the time to work if we are to be blessed 

 and not cursed by the people of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The nation 

 that neglects its forests is surely destined to ruin. Hon. Elizur Wright. 



NATU-RE'S BOOK. 



And Nature, the old nurse, took 



The child upon her knee, 

 Saying: "Here is a storybook 



Thy Father has written for thee." 



"Come, wander with me," she said, 



"Into regions yet untrod; 

 And read what is still unread 

 In the manuscripts of God." 



And he wandered away and away 

 "With Nature, the dear old nurse, 



"Who sang to him night and day 

 The rhymes of the universe. 



And whenever the way seemed long, 



Or his heart began to fail, 

 She would sing a more wonderful song, 



0? tell a more marvelous tale. 



Longfellow" The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassis. 1 



