bined 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 NOBLE.

_Second pupil._

Be noble! and the nobleness 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 space of time, to be surrendered to posterity
again as unimpaired property, with increased riches and
augmented blessings, to pass 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._