2 5 S ARBOR DAY 



flowers I love, just because there is so much chance 

 about them. Nature is all in favor of certainty in 

 great laws and of uncertainty in small events. You 

 cannot appoint the day and the place for her flower 

 shows. If you happen to drop in at the right mo- 

 ment she will give you a free admission. But even 

 then it seems as if the table of beauty had been 

 spread for the joy of a higher visitor, and in obedi- 

 ence to secret orders which you have not heard. 



FLOWERS* 



BY H. W. LONGFELLOW 



SPAKE full well, in language quaint and olden, 

 One who dwelleth by the castled Rhine, 



When he called the flowers, so blue and golden, 

 Stars, that in earth's firmament do^shine. 



Stars they are, wherein we read our history, 



As astrologers and seers of old; 

 Yet not wrapped about with awful mystery, 



Like the burning stars which they behold. 



Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, 

 God hath written in those stars above; 



But not less in the bright flowerets under us 

 Stands the revelation of his love. 



* By permission of the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



