178 ARBOR DAY 



"You think I am dead," 



The quick grass said, 

 "Because I have parted with stem and blade! 



But under the ground 



I am safe and sound, 



With the snow's thick blanket over me laid. 

 I'm all alive, and ready to shoot 



Should the spring of the year 



Come dancing here 

 But I pity the flower without branch or root." 



"You think I am dead," 



A soft voice said, 

 "Because not a branch or root I own! 



I never have died, 



But close I hide 



In a plumy seed that the wind has sown. 

 Patient I wait through the long winter hours; 



You will see me again 



I shall laugh at you then, 

 Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers!" 



THE FOREST 



BY RICHARD JEFFERIES 



From The Open Air 



UNDER the trees the imagination plays unchecked, 

 and calls up the past as if yew bow and broad arrow 



