( 83 ) 
The Old Elm Tree. 
As 
I sat 
beneath 
an old elm 
tree the wind 
went whistling by. 
It bent its boughs 
and softly breathed the 
following Avith a sigh : “I 
have lived here for many a year 
and seen the summer come and 
go; the spring time with its flowers 
and rain, the autumn with its fruit and 
grain, the winter with its chilling blast 
when with snow and ice the clouds are over 
cast. In summer time beneath my shade 
have children often played; and oh, how oft, 
beneath my boughs have lovers renewed their 
plighted vows, and many a time the old and feeble 
have sought my shade to smoke their pipes or 
ply the needle, and thus it’s been with smiles 
and tears I have watched them to come and 
go for three-score years, and many a tale 
I could tell of what in that time befell. 
But age is creeping o’er my 
head and I fear my 
roots 
are get- 
ting- 
dead; 
and 
soon 
I’ll w- 
i t h el¬ 
and 
decay 
like 
those 
who sought 
my shade each day. 
