ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
'73 
THE TWIG THAT BECAME A TREE. 
HE tree of which I am about to tell you was once a little twig. There were 
1 many others like it, and the farmer came to look at them every day, to see 
rf they were all doing well. 
By-and-by he began to take away the older and stronger twigs, and one day 
he dug up this little tree and carried it away to an open field. 
There its roots were again put into the soft warm ground, and it held its 
pretty head up as if looking into the blue sky. Just at sunset the farmer’s wife 
•came out to look at the new tree. 
“I wonder if I shall ever see apples growing on these twigs,” she said. 
The little tree heard it, and said softly, “We shall see! Come gentle rain 
.and warm sun, and let me be the first to give a fine red apple to the farmer’s 
wife! ” 
And the rain and the sun did come, and the branches grew, and the roots 
■dug deep into the soft ground, and at last, one bright spring day the farmer’s 
wife cried, 
“Just see ! . One of our little trees has some blossoms on it! I believe that, 
•small as it is, it will give me an apple this autumn.” 
But the farmer laughed and said, ‘‘Oh, it is not old enough to bear apples 
yet.” 
The little tree said nothing, but all to itself it thought, “The good woman 
shall have an apple this very year.” 
And she did. When the cool days of autumn came, and the leaves began to 
fade and grow yellow, two red apples hung upon one of the branches of the 
tree. 
THE SPICE TREE. 
T HE spice tree grows in the garden green, 
Beside it the fountain flows, 
And a fair bird sits the boughs between 
And sings his melodious woes. 
No greener garden e’er was known 
Within the bounds of an earthly King; 
No brighter skies have ever shone 
Than those that illumine its constant spring. 
That coil bound stem has branches three 
On each a thousand blossoms grow. 
And, old as aught of time can be, 
The roots stand fast in the rocks below. 
John Sterling. 
