ARBOR DA V MANUAL. 
303 
THE LILAC. 
T HE sun shone warm, and the lilac said, 
“ I must hurry and get my table spread. 
For if I am slow, and dinner late, 
My friends, the bees, will have to wait.” 
So delicate lavender glass she brought 
And the daintiest china ever bought, 
Purple tinted, and all complete ; 
And she filled each cup with honey sweet. 
“ Dinner is ready ! ” the spring wind cried; 
And from hive and hiding, far and wide, 
While the lilac laughed to see them come, 
The little gray-jacketed bees came hum-m! 
They sipped the syrup from every cell, 
They nibbled at taffy and caramel; 
Then, without being asked, they all buzzed: “We 
Will be very happy to stay to tea.” 
Clara Doty Bates. 
THE RHODORA. 
ON BEING ASKED, WHENCE IS THE FLOWER? 
I N May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, 
I found the fresh rhodora in the woods, 
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nOok, 
To please the desert and the sluggish brook. 
The purple petals fallen in the pool, 
Made the black water with their beauty gay; 
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool, 
And court the flower that cheapens his array. 
Rhodora ! if the sages ask thee why 
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 
Tell them, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing, 
Then beauty is its own excuse for being. 
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose ! 
I never thought to ask, I never knew; 
But, in my simple ignorance, suppose 
The self-same power that brought me there brought you. 
Emerson. 
Who that has loved knows not the tender tale 
Which flowers reveal, when lips are coy to tell. 
Bulwer-Lytton. 
