ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



'95 



THE GINGERBREAD TREE. 



OH, do you know, and do you know, 

 The tree where risen doughnuts grow, 

 And in a shower come tumbling down, 

 All sugar}' and crisp and brown ? 



And did you ever chance to see 

 The plum-cakes on this charming tree ? 

 And reaching o'er the fence, perhaps 

 A stem just strung with ginger-snaps? 



The house stands close be,side the street ; 



Around its roof the branches meet. 



If you look up, about your head 



Fall down great squares of gingerbread. 



Once when I went inside the door, 

 Through the wide window to the floor, 

 A bough came bending all apart, 

 And tossed me in a jelly tart. 



Whoever lives there, I must say, 

 Though he is lame, and old, and gray, 

 What a rare gardener he must be. 

 And, oh, how happy with that tree ! 



My mother says that very few 

 Gingerbread-trees she ever knew. 

 And none shook down, it seems to her, 

 Like this, an apple turnover. 



Some days it drops upon the ground, 

 Soft, soft, a frosted heart, and round, 

 And sometimes, when the branches stir, 

 Such cookies rain as never were. 



And you can guess oh. you can guess 

 That if 't is too far a recess, 

 Yet all the children, as a rule, 

 Go slow there, coming home from school. 

 Harper's Young People, 1889. HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD. 



Ivy clings to wood or stone. 

 And hides the ruin that it feeds upon. 



COWPER. 



