264 ARBOR DAY MANUAL. 



FREEDOM'S FLOWER. 



THE GOLDEN ROD. 



LET merry England proudly rear High on the mountain crag it blooms; 



Her blended roses bought so dear, The salt wind shakes its yellow plumes; 



And Scotland bind her bonnet blue And with its countless flowers behold 



With heath and harebell dipped in dew; The prairie gleams a sea of gold; 



On favored Erin's crest be seen While lonely nook and sterile place 



The flower she loves of emerald green ; Grow lovely with its waving grace. 



But ours, this new land of the west, Free, free, we gather it at will, 



What emblem blossom suits it best? And leave each road-side shining still ! 



No fragile nursling of the spring, And brave it blossoms, heeding not 



No dainty, garden-nurtured thing; Though storms beat wild, or suns burn hot; 



But clad in sunshine glad and strong, Alike to all its flowers belong; 



Self-sown, upspringing from the sod, Through all the land it decks the sod; 



And scattered wide and lasting long, It bids our hearts " Be glad, be strong; " 



Is freedom's flower, the golden rod. 'Tis freedom's flower, the golden rod. 



MARIAN DOUGLAS, in Harper's Bazar. 



Written for the ARBOR DAY MANUAL.'' 



THE DAISY. 



OUR NATIONAL EMBLEM. 



DAISIES, bright daisies keep nodding at me, 

 And winking and blinking so coquettishly, 

 While up from the depths of their great speaking eyes 

 Love and loyalty well ! dear national ties ! 

 Go ! weave me a banner of grasses, fresh grasses, 

 From out by the roadside where every one passes; 

 Now bring me sweet daisies 

 The pretty ox-eyed; 

 Cut from the roadside 

 Which every one praises. 

 Now tastefully lay in the daisies for stars 

 And catch me the radiant sunbeams for bars, 

 Then say if a prettier emblem can be 

 For this land of the brave, this home of the free. 

 Sodus, N. Y. MRS. B. C. RUDE. 



Dear though the shadowy maple be, There childhood flung its rustling stone, 



And dearer still the whispering pine There venturous boyhood learned to climb 



Dearest yon russet-laden tree How well the early graft was known 



Browned by the heavy-rubbing kine ! Whose fruit was ripe ere harvest time ! 



HOLMES. 



