100 ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



BIRDS IN SUMMER. 



HOW pleasant the life of a bird must be, 

 Flitting about in each leafy tree, 

 In the leafy trees, so broad and tall, 

 Like a green and beautiful palace hall, 

 With its airy chambers, light and boon, 

 That open to sun and stars and moon ! 

 That open unto the bright blue sky, 

 And the frolicsome winds as they wander by ! 



They have left their nests in the forest bough, 

 Those homes of delight they need not now ; 

 And the young and the old they wander out, 

 And traverse their green world round about ; 

 And hark ! at the top of this leafy hall, 

 How one to the other they lovingly call : 

 "Come up, come up ! " they seem to say, 

 "When the topmost twigs in the breezes sway." 



"Come up, come up ! for the world is fair 

 When the merry leaves dance in the summer air. 

 And the birds below give back the cry, 



"We come, we come to the branches high !" 

 How pleasant the life of a bird must be, 

 Flitting about in a leafy tree ! 

 And away through the air what joy to go, 

 And to look on the bright green earth below ! 



What joy it must be, like a living breeze, 

 To flutter about 'mid the flowering trees ; 

 Lightly to soar, and to see beneath 

 The wastes of the blossoming purple heath, 

 And the yellow furze, like fields of gold 

 That gladdened some fairy region old ! 

 On the mountain tops, on the billowy sea, 

 On the leafy stems of the forest tree, 

 How pleasant the life of a bird must be ! 



MRS. HEMANS. 



' Give me again my hollow tree 

 A crust of bread, and liberty !" 



POPE, Imitations of Horace* 



