eeland._

[Illustration]

THE OAK TREE.

Long ago in changeful autumn,
When the leaves are turning brown,
From a tall oak's topmost branches
Fell a little acorn down.

And it tumbled by the pathway,
And a chance foot trod it deep
In the ground, where all the winter
In its shell it lay asleep.

With the white snow lying over,
And the frost to hold it fast,
Till there came the mild spring weather,
When it burst its shell at last.

Many years kind Nature nursed it,
Summers hot and winters long;
Down the sun looked bright upon it,
While it grew up tall and strong.

Now it stands up like a giant,
Casting shadows broad and high,
With huge trunk and leafy branches
Spreading up into the sky.

Child, when haply you are resting,
'Neath the great oak's monster shade,
Think how little was the acorn
Whence that mighty tree was made.

Think how simple things and lowly
Have a part in Nature's plan;
How the great have small beginnings,
And the child becomes a man.

Little efforts work great actions;
Lessons in our childhood taught
Mold the spirits to the temper
Whereby noblest deeds are wrought.

Cherish then the gifts of childhood,
Use them gently, guard them well:
For their future growth and greatness
Who can measure, who can tell?

--_Colorado Arbor and Bird Day._

THE POPLAR FIELD.

The poplars are felled; farewell to the shade
And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade;
The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,
Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.

Twelve years have elapsed since I first took a view
Of my favorite field, and the bank where they grew;
And now in the grass behold they are laid,
And the tree is my seat that once lent me their shade.

The blackbird has fled to another retreat,
Where the hazel affords him a screen from the heat;
And the scene where his melody charmed me before
Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.

My fugitive years are all hasting away,
And I must ere long lie as lowly as they,
With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head
Ere another such grove shall arise in its stead.

To change both my heart and my fancy employs;
I ref