A FLOWER MESSAGE. 



BY BEEN" E. KEXFORD. 

 1. 



To-day I turned a page in nature's book, 



And read a poem there, 

 Set to the music of the breeze and brook, 



And sounds of earth and air, 

 A poem fresh from the great Author's hand, 



Sweet with the thought of God, 

 That sent its fragrant meaning through the land 



From a leaf-littered sod. 



2. 

 I knew the arbutus was all in bloom 



Before I saw its face, 

 For every wind was sweet with its perfume 



Far 'round its hiding-place. 

 I knelt beneath the pines, and brushed away 



The leaves that fell in fall, 

 And, lo, the rosy blossoms of the May, 



With witchery in them all ! 



3. 

 And from their home beneath Wisconsin pines 



I send to you, to-day, 

 These arbutus flowers, and in their fragrant lines 



Read what I fain would say; 

 They .bear the east's warm greeting to the west, 



Wordless, but eloquent. 

 And those among you who love flowers best 



Will tell you what is meant. 



4. 

 land of sunshine under skies so fair 



As those of Italy! 

 You have your blossoms while our hills are bare, 



But we, in dreams, can see 

 Your roses red with June in winter days, 



And sweet with myrrh and musk, 

 And hear the lark's ecstatic roundelays 



Through the long, tropic dusk. 



