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ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
FREEDOM’S FLOWER. 
THE GOLDEN ROD. 
L ET merry England proudly rear 
Her blended roses bought so dear, 
And Scotland bind her bonnet blue 
With heath and harebell dipped in dew; 
On favored Erin’s crest be seen 
The flower she loves of emerald green ; 
But ours, this new land of the west, 
What emblem blossom suits it best? 
No fragile nursling of the spring, 
No dainty, garden-nurtured thing; 
But clad in sunshine glad and strong, 
Self-sown, upspringing from the sod, 
And scattered wide and lasting long. 
Is freedom’s flower, the golden rod. 
High on the mountain crag it blooms; 
The salt wind shakes its yellow plumes; 
And with its countless flowers behold 
The prairie gleams a sea of gold; 
While lonely nook and sterile place 
Grow lovely with its waving grace. 
Free, free, we gather it at will. 
And leave each road side shining still! 
And brave it blossoms, heeding not 
Though storms beat wild, or suns burn hot 
Alike to all its flowers belong; 
Through all the land it decks the sod; 
It bids our hearts “ Be glad, be strong; ” 
’Tis freedom’s flower, the golden rod. 
Marian Douglas, in Harper's Bazar . 
Written for the Arbor Dav Manual." 
THE DAISY. 
OUR NATIONAL EMBLEM. 
D AISIES, bright daisies keep nodding at me, 
And winking and blinking so coquettishly, 
While up from the depths of their great speaking eyes 
Love and loyalty well! dear national ties ! 
Go ! weave me a banner of grasses, fresh grasses, 
From out by the roadside where every one passes; 
Now bring me sweet daisies 
The pretty ox-eyed; 
Cut from.the roadside 
Which every one praises. 
Now tastefully lay in the daisies for stars 
And catch me the radiant sunbeams for bars, 
Then say if a prettier emblem can be 
For this land of the brave, this home of the free. 
Sodus, N. Y. Mrs. B. C. Rude. 
Dear though the shadowy maple be, 
And dearer still the whispering pine 
Dearest yon russet-laden tree 
Browned by the heavy-rubbing kine ! 
There childhood flung its rustling stone, 
There venturous boyhood learned to climb 
How well the early graft was known 
Whose fruit was ripe ere harvest time ! 
Holmes. 
