22 ARBOR DAY 



What plant we in this apple-tree ? 

 Sweets for a hundred flowery springs 

 To load the May-wind's restless wings, 

 When from the orchard-row he pours 

 Its fragrance through our open doors; 



A world of blossoms for the bee, 

 Flowers for the sick girl's silent room, 

 For the glad infant sprigs of bloom, 



We plant with the apple-tree. 



What plant we in this apple-tree? 

 Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, 

 And redden in the August noon, 

 And drop when gentle airs come by, 

 That fan the blue September sky; 



While children, wild with noisy glee, 

 Shall scent their fragrance as they pass 

 And search for them the tufted grass 



At the foot of the apple-tree. 



And when above this apple tree 

 The winter stars are quivering bright, 

 And winds go howling through the night, 

 Girls, whose young eyes o'erflow with mirth, 

 Shall peel its fruit by the cottage hearth; 



And guests in prouder homes shall see, 

 Heaped with the orange and the grape, 

 As fair as they in tint and shape, 



The fruit of the apple-tree. 



