ARBOR DA Y MANUAL. 
385 
SPECIMEN PROGRAMS. 
Port Henry, N. Y. 
Arranged by Professor W. H. Benedict, now of the public schools of Elmira, N. Y., for an Arbor Da> 
celebration in May, 1888, before the law had taken effect. 
PROGRAM. 
Selections marked * given in this volume. 
1. Heading of proposed Arbor Day law. 
2. Paper — “Arbor Day.” 
3. Reading of letters : 
[From James Russell Lowell.] 
Deerfoot Farm, Southborough, March 28, 1888. 
Dear Sir — I can think of no more pleasant way of being remembered than by the 
planting of a tree. Like whatever things are perennially gopd, it will be growing while 
we are sleeping, and will survive us to make others happier. Birds will rest in it and fly 
thence with messages of good cheer. I should be glad to think that any word or deed 
of mine could be such a perennial presence of beauty, or show so benign a destiny. I 
beg you and your pupils to accept my hearty good wishes. 
Faithfully yours, 
James Russell Lowell. 
[From Alice M. Longfellow.] 
Mt. Vernon, Va., May ri, 1888. 
Dear Sir — I am sorry I was unable to write you a letter at the time you desired, but 
I hope your celebration of Arbor Day was very successful, that the children were fully 
interested in the occasion. I am glad you feel that this celebration is a means for bringing 
the school children into contact with the lives of our writers, as the love of nature and of 
literature ought surely to go together. Very truly yours, 
Alice M. Longfellow, 
(Daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.) 
[From Oliver Wendell Holmes.] 
Boston, March 31, 1888. 
My Dear Sir — I must write a line or two with my own hand to thank you for your 
very kind letter, and to convey my best wishes to your pupils and their teachers. 
It is a great pleasure and privilege to find that one’s thoughts find a hospitable recep¬ 
tion to the minds and hearts of friends who are personally unknown to us. 
Very truly yours, 
Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
[From Edward W. Emerson.] 
Concord, Mass., April 28, 1888. 
Dear Sir —Your letter only came to-day; I hope mine will not be too late. It is 
pleasant to learn that your school children are finding new interest in good books, and in 
the wholesome book — Nature. » 
I wish that they may find them the joy and inspiration that my father did. 
Boys are first led to the woods by trapping, shooting, or perhaps chopping, and girls 
by love of wild-flowers, but soon some will learn to love the woods and lonely places, 
not for these special reasons, but as their constant friends, comforting, resting them, ele¬ 
vating and renewing their thoughts. To go alone or with only one companion who really 
loves nature is necessary, for at a boisterous picnic the wood-gods are never found. 
As I am called to speak for my father, to-day, I will tell also to your boys and girls to 
carry away a good counsel which he gave to the boys and girls he met. It is this . 
“ Always do what you are afraid to do,” meaning of course, what you feel you ought to 
do, if you only dared. 
Wishing you a pleasant celebration, and that your thoughts may grow and give you joy 
and seed for more. Sincerely yours, 
Edward W. Emerson, 
25 (Spn of Ralph Waldo Emerson.) 
