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ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



Written for the " ARBOR DAY MANUAL. 



ARBOR DAY POEM. 



ISTEN ! the grand old forests, 

 \__j Through which our fathers journeyed, 

 Wherein their hearth-fires glimmered, 



Are crashing sadly down ; 

 The echoes of their falling 

 Are like the booming sea guns, 

 That tell of sore disaster 



When tempests darkly frown. 



Those trees of God's own planting, 

 Once standing with their branches 

 Close-locked, like loving children, 



On many a mountain side ; 

 Now, where the shade lay thickest, 

 The sunshine darts and quivers, 

 And turns to gold the wheat fields, 



Till all seems glorified. 



We mourn the vanished grandeur 

 Of forests dark and stately, 

 Yet we have not been idle, 



While ruthless axes swung ; 

 A new, a glorious planting, 

 Now gives a royal promise 

 Of shade for generations 



Whose deeds are still unsung. 



We plant the pine and fir tree, 

 And all that wear green branches, 

 To give us hope of spring-time, 



Though snows are over all; 

 The maple is for bird-songs, 

 The elm for stately branches, 

 Whose long, protecting shadows 



Through summer noontides fall. 



Listen ! a pleasant whisper 

 Goes softly through the branches 

 Of every lithe young sapling, 



By earnest workers set ; 

 It says, " The time is coming 

 When we shall be the forests, 

 And give to all the nations, 



The shade they now regret." 



Sadies Centre, N. Y. 



LILLIAN E. KNAPP. 



Written for the "ARDOR DAY MANUAL." 



LITTLE ACORN. 



FOR RECITATION. 



I'M nothing but a little acorn, " Then I'll look down on my sisters, 



Not much bigger than a bee; For there were a lot you see, 



But mama Oak-tree tells me that Some who said they knew they couldn't 



I will grow as big as she, Ever sprout and be a tree. 



I can't see how but she says some way 

 I will pop out from my shell, 



A little sprout will greet the sunshine, 

 Starting up, and down as well. 



I'll keep growing, bigger, higher, 

 Spreading out my branches wide; 



And will never stop to wonder 

 Till I stand up by her side. 



Watertown, N. Y. 



" So they never made an effort, 



Did not ' try and try again ' ; 

 There was nothing that could make them, 

 Though nature taught their duty plain. 



" But I am happy as I can be 



Keeping laws of God and man 

 Now, can't you learn a lesson from me 

 Growing upward all you can? " 



MRS. M. II. HUNTINGTON. 



