2 70 ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 



SONG TO THE TREES. 



MAY BE ARRANGED FOR A CLASS OF SIX PUPILS. 

 I. 



HAIL to the trees ! 

 Patient and generous, mothers of mankind, 

 Arching the hills, the minstrels of the wind, 

 Spring's glorious flowers, and summer's balmy tents, 

 A sharer in man's free and happier sense, 

 From early blossom till the north wind calls 

 Its drowsy sprites from beech-hid waterfalls, 

 The trees bless all, and then, brown-mantled, stand 

 The sturdy prophets of a golden land. 



II. 



Eden was clothed in trees ; their glossy leaves 

 Gave raiment, food, and shelter ; 'neath their eaves 

 Dripping with ruby dew the flow'rets rose 

 To follow man from Eden to his woes. 

 The silver rill crept fragrant thickets through, 

 The air was rich with life, a violet hue 

 Tangling with sunshine lit the waving scene, 

 'Twas heaven, tree-born, tree-lulled, enwreathed in green. 



in. 



Where trees are not, behold the deserts swoon 

 Beneath the brazen sun and mocking moon. 

 Where trees are not, the tawny torrent leaps, 

 A brawling savage from the crumbling steeps, 

 Where once the ferns their gentle branches waved 

 And tender lilies in the crystal laved ; 

 A brawling savage, plundering in a night, 

 The fields it once strayed through a streamlet bright. 



IV. 



What gardeners like the trees? Their loving care 

 The daintiest blooms can deftly plant and rear. 

 How smilingly with outstretched boughs they stand 

 To shade the flowers too fragile for man's hand ! 

 With scented leaves, crisp, ripened, nay, not dead, 

 They tuck the wild flowers in their moss-rimmed bed. 

 The forest nook outvies the touch of art, 

 The heart of man loves not like the oak's heart. 



v. 



O whispering trees, companions, sages, friends, 

 No change in you, whatever friendship ends ; 

 No deed of yours the Eden link e'er broke; 



