I 2 ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



THE DREAMER AND REAPER. 



[Extract from a poem read by Rev. Dr. James H. Ecob, of Albany, before the 

 Society of the Alumni of Hamilton College on the 26th of June, 1889. The 

 theme of the poem was suggested by the visit of Dr. Ecob to the home of his 

 childhood, after an absence of many years.] 



MY father loved a tree as men 

 Are wont to love their kind; so, when 

 He left the hot and hated life 

 Of cit) r streets and city strife, 

 As flies the nesting bird, he flew, 

 On eager wing, by instinct true, 

 To build and rear his little brood. 

 Deep in the wood's green solitude. 

 A young bird in the nest first lifts 

 His wondering eyes thro' sunny rifts 

 Of happy leaves ; about his nest 

 The russet arms are strongly pressed, 

 The springing arches, high and dim, 

 Are haunted by the whispered hymn 

 Of summer winds, while far below 

 The voices of the great world flow. 

 So nested all my early years 

 Among the trees. The wood enspheres 

 My first, my fairest memories. 

 And deep as life in Druid trees, 

 Lie hidden founts of tears and love, 

 That answer to the hymn above, 

 Of softly stirring boughs and leaves. 

 Bethesda-like, my soul receives 

 New life and healing, quickening moods, 

 When troubled by the angel of the woods. 



So slipped those lovely, shadowy years, 

 As slips a wandering wind one hears 

 Among the trees ; a sudden stir 

 Of startled leaves ; upon the floor 

 Of moss and flowers, a tangled sheen 

 Of light and shade, and then, between 

 Your breaths, 'tis gone. You hear its feet 

 Retreating airily and fleet, 

 And wonder if it e'er had been, 

 Or if a gust of dreams broke in 

 Upon the soul. 



I turned again, 

 When I had been with time and men, 



