AN ARBOR DAY TREE 35 



School decoration is almost certain to result in home 

 decoration. 



The Arbor Day programme should teach a lesson 

 in kindness to animals. If children become inter- 

 ested in the study of the habits and characteristics 

 of animals, there is little likelihood that cruelty 

 will be practised. As we learn to know animals, 

 we find in them so many qualities that appeal to our 

 sympathies and our interests, that the desire to des- 

 troy or harm fades away. The boy who has learned 

 from experience that many wild animals will soon 

 cease to fear him if he does not frighten them, is 

 not likely to continue to injure them, for he will 

 want them to be his friends. 



AN ARBOR DAY TREE 



UNKNOWN 



DEAR little tree that we plant to-day, 

 What will you be when we're old and gray? 

 "The savings bank of the squirrel and mouse, 

 For robin and wren an apartment house, 

 The dressing-room of the butterfly's ball, 

 The locust's and katydid's concert hall, 

 The schoolboy's ladder in pleasant June, 

 The schoolgirl's tent in the July noon, ' 

 And my leaves shall whisper them merrily 

 A tale of the children who planted me." 



