Arbor Day Leaves Part 4

=7. RECITATIONS.= (By Different Pupils.)

THE PURPOSE OF ARBOR DAY.

_First pupil._

To avert treelessness; to improve the climatic conditions; for the sanitation and embellishment of home environments; for the love of the beautiful and useful combined in the music and majesty of a tree, as fancy and truth unite in an epic poem, Arbor Day was created. It has grown with the vigor and beneficence of a grand truth or a great tree.

--J. STERLING MORTON.

BE n.o.bLE.

_Second pupil._

Be n.o.ble! and the n.o.bleness that lies In other men sleeping, but never dead, Will rise in majesty to meet thine own; Then wilt thou see it gleam in many eyes, Then will pure light around thy path be shed, And thou wilt nevermore be sad and lone.

--LOWELL.

LEAVES.

_Third pupil._

The leaves of the herbage at our feet take all kinds of strange shapes as if to invite us to examine them.

Star-shaped, heart-shaped, spear-shaped, arrow-shaped, fretted, fringed, cleft, furrowed, serrated, sinuated, in whorls, in tufts, in spires, in wreaths, endlessly expressive, deceptive, fantastic, never the same from footstalk to blossom, they seem perpetually to tempt our watchfulness and take delight in outstripping our wonder.

--RUSKIN.

INFLUENCE OF NATURE.

_Fourth pupil._

Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows and the woods And mountains, and of all that we behold From this green earth; of all the mighty world Of eye and ear, both what they half create And what perceive; well pleased to recognize In nature, and the language of the sense, The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul, Of all my moral being.

--WORDSWORTH.

_Fifth pupil._

I regard the forest as an heritage, given to us by nature, not for spoil or to devastate, but to be wisely used, reverently honored, and carefully maintained. I regard the forest as a gift entrusted to us only for transient care during a short s.p.a.ce of time, to be surrendered to posterity again as unimpaired property, with increased riches and augmented blessings, to pa.s.s as a sacred patrimony from generation to generation.

--BARON FERDINAND VON MUELLER.

NATURE'S COMFORT.

_Sixth pupil._

If thou art worn and hard beset With sorrows that thou wouldst forget, If thou wouldst read a lesson that will keep Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, Go to the woods and hills! No tears Dim the sweet look that Nature wears.

--LONGFELLOW.

_Seventh pupil._

It may be said that the measure of attention given to trees indicates the condition of agriculture and civilization of a country.

--MAHe.

_Eighth pupil._

I said I will not walk with men to-day, But I will go among the blessed trees,-- Among the forest trees I'll take my way, And they shall say to me what words they please.

And when I came among the trees of G.o.d, With all their million voices sweet and blest, They gave me welcome. So I slowly trod Their arched and lofty aisles, with heart at rest.

_Ninth pupil._

Forests can flourish independent of agriculture; but agriculture cannot prosper without forests.

_Tenth pupil._

The man who builds does a work which begins to decay as soon as he has done, but the work of the man who plants trees grows better and better, year after year, for generations.

_Eleventh pupil._

Of all man's works of art a cathedral is greatest. A vast and majestic tree is greater than that.

--H.W. BEECHER.

_Twelfth pupil._

In an agricultural country the preservation or destruction of forests must determine the decision of Hamlet's alternative: "to be or not to be." An animal flayed or a tree stripped of its bark does not perish more surely than a land deprived of the trees.

--FELIX L. OSWALD.

_Thirteenth pupil._

By their fruit ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

=8. DECLAMATION.=

A FOREST SONG.

A song for the beautiful trees!

A song for the forest grand, The garden of G.o.d's Own land, The pride of His centuries.

Hurrah! for the kingly oak, For the maple, the sylvan queen, For the lords of the emerald cloak, For the ladies in living green.

So long as the rivers flow, So long as the mountains rise, May the forest sing to the skies, And shelter the earth below.

Hurrah! for the beautiful trees, Hurrah! for the forest grand, The pride of His centuries, The garden of G.o.d's own land.

--W.H. VENABLE.