286 
ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
In the dim woods, and the white woodman first 
Opened these fields to sunshine, turned the soil 
And strewed the wheat. An unremembered Past 
Broods, like a presence, mid the long gray boughs 
Of this old tree, which has outlived so long 
The flitting generations of mankind. 
Ye have no history. I ask in vain 
Who planted on the, slope this lofty group 
Of ancient pear-trees that with spring time burst 
Into such breadth of bloom. One bears a scar 
Where the quick lightning scored its trunk, yet still 
It feels the breath of Spring, and every May 
Is white with blossoms. Who it was that laid 
Their infant roots in earth, and tenderly 
Cherished the delicate sprays, I ask in vain. 
Yet bless the unknown hand to which I owe 
This annual festival of bees, these songs 
Of birds within their leafy screen, these shouts 
Of joy from children gathering up the fruit 
Shaken in August from the willing boughs. 
Ye that my hands have planted, or have spared,. 
Beside the way, or in the orchard-ground, 
Or in the open meadow, ye whose boughs 
With every summer spread a wider shade, 
Whose herd in coming years shall lie at rest 
Beneath your noontide shelter? who shall pluck 
Your ripened fruit ? who grave, as was the wont 
Of simple pastoral ages, on the rind 
Of my smooth Beeches some beloved name ? 
Idly I ask, yet may the eyes that look 
Upon you, in your later, nobler growth, 
Look also on a nobler age than ours; 
An age when, in the eternal strife between 
Evil and Good, the Power of Good shall win 
A grander master)'-. 
* * * * * * * Bryant. 
A man was lately tried at Aberdeen for obstructing a revenue officer; it un¬ 
fortunately came out on the trial, that the prisoner had been guilty of planting 
the Tree of Liberty, where no tree had ever grown before, and where Liberty" 
was not in the most flourishing state. The consequence was, a judgment, that 
he should be publicly whipped, and banished the kingdom for fourteen years-- 
Thomas Paine, 1793,- 
