So 
ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
Written for the “Arbor Day Manual.” 
ARBOR DAY POEM. 
L ISTEN ! the grand old forests, 
Through which our fathers journeyed, 
Wherein their hearth-fires glimmered, 
Are crashing sadly down ; 
The echoes of their falling 
Are like the booming sea guns. 
That tell of sore disaster 
When tempests darkly frown. 
Those trees of God’s own planting, 
Once standing with their branches 
Close-locked, like loving children. 
On many a mountain side ; 
Now, where the shade lay thickest, 
The sunshine darts and quivers. 
And turns to gold the wheat fields, 
Till all seems glorified. 
We mourn the vanished grandeur 
Of forests dark and stately, 
Yet we have not been idle, 
While ruthless axes swung ; 
A new, a glorious planting, 
Now gives a royal promise 
Of shade for generations 
Whose deeds are still unsung. 
We plant the pine and fir tree. 
And all that wear green branches. 
To give us hope of spring-time, 
Though snows are over all; 
The maple is for bird-songs. 
The elm for stately branches, 
Whose long, protecting shadows 
Through summer noontides fall. 
Listen ! a pleasant whisper 
Goes softly through the branches 
Of every lithe young sapling, 
By earnest workers set ; 
It says, “ The time is coming 
When we shall be the forests, 
And give to all the nations, 
The shade they now regret.” 
Sodus Centre, N. Y. Lillian E. Knapp. 
Written for the “Arbor Day Manual.” 
LITTLE ACORN. 
FOR RECITATION. 
T J M nothing but a little acorn, 
1 Not much bigger than a bee; 
But mama Oak-tree tells me that 
I will grow as big as she,— 
“ I can’t see how—but she says someway 
I will pop out from my shell, 
A little sprout will greet the sunshine, 
Starting up, and down as well. 
“ I’ll keep growing, bigger, higher, 
Spreading out my branches wide; 
And will never stop to wonder 
Till I stand up by her side. 
Watertown, N. Y. 
“ Then I’ll look down on my sisters,— 
For there were a lot you see,— 
Some who said they knew they couldn’t 
Ever sprout and be a tree. 
“ So they never made an effort,— 
Did not ‘ try and tty again ’; 
There was nothing that could make them, 
Though nature taught their duty plain, 
“ But I am happy as I can be — 
Keeping laws of God and man — 
Now, can’t you learn a lesson from me 
Growing upward all you can? ” 
Mrs. M. II. Huntington. 
