ARBOR DAY ITS HISTORY AND OBSERVANCE. 75 



Here is continual worship. Nature, here, 

 In the tranquillity that Thou dost love, 

 Enjoys Thy presence. Noiselessly around, 

 From perch to perch, the solitary bird 

 Passes ; and yon clear spring, that, 'midst its herbs, 

 Wells softly forth, and, wandering, steeps the roots 

 Of half the mighty forest, tells no tale 

 Of all the good it does. Thou hast not left 

 Thyself without a witness, in these shades, 

 Of Thy perfections. Grandeur, strength and grace 

 Are here to speak of Thee. This mighty oak 

 By whose immovable stem I stand and seem 

 Almost annihilated not a prince 

 In all that proud old world beyond the deep, 

 E'er wore his crown as loftily as he 

 "Wears the green coronal of leaves with which 

 Thy hand has graced him. Nestled at his root 

 Is beauty such as blooms not in the glare 

 Of the broad sun. That delicate forest flower, 

 With scented breath and look so like a smile, 

 Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mold, 

 An emanation of the indwelling Life, 

 A visible token of the upholding Love, 

 That are the soul of this wide universe. 

 *>** 



Be it ours to meditate 



In these calm shades, Thy milder majesty, 

 And to the beautiful order of Thy works 

 Learu to conform the order of our lives. 



[Bryant. 



BLESSING FOR THE TREE PLANTER. 



O painter of the fruits and flowers ! 



Wo tliauk Thee for thy wise design 

 Whereby these human hands of ours 



In nature's garden work with Thine. 



***** 

 Give fools their gold and knaves their power; 



Let fortune's bubbles rise and fall; 

 Who sows a field or trains a flower. 



Or plants a tree is more than all. 



For he who blesses most is blest ; 



And God and man shall own his worth 

 Who toils to leave as his bequest 



An added beauty to the earth. 



And, soon or late, to all who sow, 



The time of harvest shall be given ; 

 The flower shall bloom, the fruit shall grow, 



If not on earth, at last in heaven. 



[Whittier. 



GREAT CRYPTOMERIA AVENUE OF JAPAN. 



The people of a certain locality in Japan, it is said, love to tell this story of what 

 is perhaps the most beautiful road in the Japanese Empire. When the great general 

 and lawgiver lyecsasu died, his former tributary princes vied with one another in 

 rich mortuary gifts to perpetuate his memory. One daimio, loving and loyal, instead 

 of the customary gift of rare bronze or wrought stone to honor his dead lord, gave 

 from his forest laud thousands of cryptomeria trees, which he wisely knew would 

 be an ever-growing delight for generations in a densely populated region. 



These young trees, which were then but 18 inches or more 111 height, he planted 

 at equal distances along the two roads leading to Nikko, where the body of the 



