ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
ARBUTUS. 
S WEET welcome to thee, dainty winsome flower! 
Beloved ! bringing joy for April’s tears, 
Upspringing in the track of wintry fears 
That ghostly haunt spring’s timid, ’wakening hour. 
The banished months have left thee beauty’s power: 
The autumn, crimson blush ; its snowy kiss, 
The dying winter; and the summer’s bliss 
Of fragrance in thy breath — a precious dower ! 
What blossom so beloved as thou dost hide 
As thou, ’neath rusty leaves that men despise ? 
Thus rest unseen, till covert torn aside 
Thy secret yields. Then gladden with surprise 
And new-born hope, some sad soul’s yearning eyes, 
That under death such living joys abide. 
Chautanquan, April, 1888. Anne Hall. 
THE WOODLAND IN SPRING. 
T^'EN in the spring and play-time of the year, 
r i That calls th’ unwonted villager abroad 
With all her little ones, a sportive train, 
To gather kingcups in the yellow mead, 
And prink their hair with daisies, or to pick 
A cheap but wholesome salad from the brook ; 
These shades are all my own. The timorous hare, 
Grown so familiar with her frequent guest, 
Scarce shuns me; and the stock-dove, unalarmed, 
Sits cooing in the pine tree, nor suspends 
His long love-ditty for my near approach. 
Drawn from his refuge in some lonely elm, 
That age or injury has hollowed deep, 
Where on his bed of wool and matted leaves, 
He has outslept the winter, ventures forth 
To frisk awhile, and bask in the warm sun, 
The squirrel, flippant, pert and full of play; 
He sees me, and at once, swift as a bird, 
Ascends the neighboring beech ; there whisks his brush, 
And perks his ears, and stamps and cries aloud, 
With all the prettiness of feigned alarm, 
And anger insignificantly fierce. COWPER. 
To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new. 
Milton’s Lycidas. 
