WHAT DO WE PLANT?
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the ship which will cross the sea.
We plant the mast to carry the sails:
We plant the plank to withstand the gales;
The keel, the keelson, and beam and knee:
We plant the ship when we plant the tree.
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the house for you and me.
We plant the rafter, the shingles, the floors;
We plant the studding, the lath, the doors,
The beams and siding, all parts that be;
We plant the house when we plant the tree.
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
A thousand things that we daily see.
We plant the spire that out-towers the crag,
We plant the staff for our country’s flag:
We plant the shade from the hot sun free:
We plant all these when we plant the tree.
WE LOVE THE TREES.
BY LUCIA M. MOONEY.
First Child—
I love a tree in spring,
When the first green leaves come out.
And the birds build their nests and carol
Their sweet songs round about.
Second Child—
I love a tree in summer,
When, in the noon-tide heat.
The reapers lie in its shadow,
On the greensward, cool and sweet.
Third Child—
I love a tree in autumn,
When Frost, the painter old,
Has touched with his brush its branches,
And left them all crimson and gold.
Fourth Child—
I love a tree in winter.
Mid snow and ice and cloud,
Waving its long, bare branches
In the north wind, wailing loud.
All—
Let us plant a tree by the wayside,
Plant it with smiles and with tears,
A shade for some weary wanderer,
A hope for the coming years.
