36 ARBOR DAY 



WHEN WE PLANT A TREE* 



BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES 



(Extract from Letter) 



WHEN we plant a tree, we are doing what we can 

 to make our planet a more wholesome and happier 

 dwelling place for those who come after us if not for 

 ourselves. 



As you drop the seed, as you plant the sapling, 

 your left hand hardly knows what your right hand 

 is doing. But Nature knows, and in due time the 

 Power that sees and works in secret will reward 

 you openly. You have been warned against hiding 

 your talent in a napkin; but if your talent takes the 

 form of a maple-key or an acorn, and your napkin is 

 a shred of the apron that covers "the lap of the earth," 

 you may hide it there, unblamed; and when you render 

 in your account you will find that your deposit has 

 been drawing compound interest all the time. 



PLANT A TREE* 



BY LUCY LARCOM 



HE WHO plants a tree 



Plants a hope. 



Rootlets up through fibres blindly grope; 

 Leaves unfold into horizons free. 

 * By special permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



