ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 49 



' Take for your prop the book of God, 



And by its rules be bound ; 

 And let the wise words of your friends 

 Be stakes to fence you round. 



1 So straight and strong you shall be found, 



A joy and praise to see ; 

 And one day, in the courts of God, 

 You'll stand a fair young tree." 



MY ELM TREE. 



IT stands alone, on the brow of a little hill, not far from my door. The sight 

 of it gives me so much pleasure, that I have learned to love it as if it were 

 a human friend. I go often to visit it. 



It is a magnificent tree. The trunk rises high in a single stem, then divides 

 into three principal branches. These three great branches grow gradually 

 farther and farther apart, then bend rapidly outward with an easy sweep, and 

 finally divide into a number of smaller branches. 



Of these smaller branches, the lower or under ones bend down toward the 

 ground in graceful curves, and, dividing into many branchlets and twigs, form the 

 drooping, boughs of the tree. The upper ones grow erect, and their branchlets 

 and twigs, spreading out and bending in all directions, make the airy top of the tree. 



In the summer-time this lovely tree is covered with dark green leaves. It rests 

 the eye to look at it, and it is a delight to sit under it. But it is not in summer 

 only that it is beautiful. In the autumn its leaves turn to a sober brown, 

 touched here and there with bright golden-yellow; and, when the sun shines 

 on it, it is glorious to behold. 



When the rude autumn winds have stripped it of its leaves it is still pleasant 

 to watch the graceful branches swaying in the wind ; and then, too, I can see 

 the birds' nests, which the leaves have hidden during the summer. Almost 

 always there are one or two orioles' nests, swinging, like little bags from the 

 ends of the long slender branches. 



The earliest spring flowers blossom under my elm tree. But the dear old 

 tree is not to be outdone by the little plants at its foot, for it puts forth its 

 blossoms as soon as they. Its flowers always come before its leaves. They 

 are very tiny flowers, of a yellowish hue, and grow in small clusters on the 

 sides of the twigs. 



The flowers are soon followed by the seeds, which ripen and fall just as the 

 leaves come out. The leaves are rather small and dark green, and grow on 

 short stems called foot-stalks. They are, almost all of them, oval in shape, arid 

 have a slender point at the apex. The under side of the leaf is whitish and 

 hairy, and the ribs show very plainly. 



All elm trees are not shaped just as mine is; but any boy or girl can alwavs 

 tell an elm tree by its graceful, curving branches, and slender drooping twigs. 



REBECCA D. RICKOFF. 

 4 



