134 ARBOR DAY 



Mayflowers open their soft blue eyes. Children 

 are let loose in the fields and gardens. They hold 

 buttercups under each other's chins, to see if they 

 love butter. And the little girls adorn themselves 

 with chains and curls of dandelions; pull out the 

 yellow leaves to see if the schoolboy loves them, and 

 blow the down from the leafless stalk, to find out if 

 their mothers want them at home. And at night 

 so cloudless and so still ! Not a voice of living thing 

 not a whisper of leaf or waving bough not a 

 breath of wind not a sound upon the earth or in 

 the air! And overhead bends the blue sky, dewy 

 and soft, and radiant with innumerable stars like 

 the inverted bell of some blue flower, sprinkled with 

 golden dust, and breathing fragrance. Or, if the 

 heavens are overcast, it is no wild storm of wind and 

 rain, but clouds that melt and fall in showers. 

 One does not wish to sleep, but lies awake to hear 

 the pleasant sound of the dropping rain. 



APRIL DAYS 



BY ALFRED TENNYSON 



From In Memoriam 

 DIP down upon the northern shore, 



O sweet new year delaying long; 



Thou doest expectant nature wrong; 

 Delaying long, delay no more. 



