ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. IO/ 



DEAR DANDELION. 



(ADAPTED.) 



WINTER is over ! summer is coming ! 

 May time is with us, so balmy and sweet ! 

 All creatures feel it, all things reveal it. 



Soft skies above us, green grass at our feet. 

 ****** 



Winter is ended, summer is coming ! 



May day and robin and crocus are here ! 

 Green grows the clover ! still I roam over 



Garden and meadow for something more dear. 



Must I confess it? Surely you guess it, 



Dearest of flowers to the heart of a child ; 

 If I confide it, do not deride it. 



Call it not weed, dear, because it is wild! 

 ****** 



Foliage ragged ever invading 



Terrace and lawn in spite of your care; 

 When you're least thinking, up they come winking, 



Laugh in your face with the jolliest air. 



Duly at sunset droop the soft fringes, 



Only some little green tassels remain ; 

 But with the dawning, bright as the morning, 



Golden and saucy they bloom out again, 

 ****** 



Crocus, arbutus, violet, snow-drop, 



Others may praise them, and love them the best, 

 Give me my olden favorite golden ! 



Dear Dandelion ! You're worth all the rest ! 

 Wide Awake, August, 1886. LAURA D. NICHOLS. 



THE RETURN OF SPRING. 



* * * * * Is it a spike of azure flowers, 



A SPIRIT of beauty walks the hills, Deep in the meadows seen, 



A spirit of love the plain; Or is it the peacock's neck that towers 



The shadows are bright, and the sunshine fills Out of the spangled green? 



The air with a diamond rain ! 



Is a white dove glancing across the blue, 



Before my vision the glories swim, Or an opal taking wing ? 



To the dance of a tune unheard: For my soul is dazzled through and through, 



Is an angel singing where woods are dim, With the splendor of the Spring. 



Or is it an amorous bird ? 



BAYARD TAYLOR. 



