H 
ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
Written for the “Arbor Day Manual.” 
NAMING THE TREE. 
I M a merry little maid 
With my pick and hoe and spade, 
And I’m digging, digging, digging everywhere. 
This little sapling lately stood 
Within a dark and leafy wood, 
And kept nodding, nodding at the maiden-hair; 
While the moss kept creeping, creeping, 
And the violets peeping, peeping, 
With those longing eyes so tender and so blue. 
But the sapling grew so slender, and I knew 
’Twas for its good. I shut my eyes, 
But oh ! you should have heard the sighs, 
As blindly I with one rash blow, 
Brought such terror and such woe 
To the moss and maiden-hair 
And the violets springing there. 
I’m a merry little maid 
With my pick and hoe and spade, 
And I’m digging, digging, digging everywhere. 
And on this pleasant Arbor Day, 
Amid the perfumes of the May, 
This sapling I transplant with tenderest care. 
Let each with shovel in his hand, 
Deposit here a bit of sand ; 
Please don’t harm the clinging maiden-hair so true, 
Nor creeping moss with violets peeping through. 
I wonder if ’neath sunny skies 
Will swell to heavenly rhapsodies 
These youthful loves nursed in the wood? 
Oh if they only, only could ! 
Or do the giant oaks outgrow 
Their sapling loves as people do? 
I’m a merry little maid 
With my pick and hoe and spade, 
And I’m digging, digging, digging everywhere. 
Longfellow to his loves was true, 
And we bequeath his name to you, 
A noble name, an inspiration, royal, rare. 
And may moss keep creeping, creeping, 
And violets keep, peeping, peeping, 
