GIFT OF 
 A. P. Morrison 
 
SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 tctttres 
 
 ana 
 Cree 
 
 MARY Y. ROBINSON 
 
 Music by 
 
 JOSEBfiINK ROBINSON 
 
 Indianapolis: THK BOHBS-MERRILL COMPANY, Publishers 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1903 
 THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 
 
 OCTOBER 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 BRAUNWORTH & CO. 
 
 BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS 
 
 BROOKLYN, N. Y. 
 
Content0 
 
 January The Holly Tree- 
 February . . . T he Herald Tree 
 March . . The Wind Tree 
 
 A P ril The Roek-a-bye Tree 
 
 Ma 7 The Blossom Tree 
 
 J une The Rose Tree 
 
 J ul 7 The Cherry Tree 
 
 A "gust The Maple Tree 
 
 September . . . The Apple Tree 
 
 October The Sugar-plum Tree 
 
 November The Ghost Tree 
 
 December .... The Christmas Tree 
 
amtary 
 
 i* U 
 
 JANIVEER FREEZE THE POT BY THK KIRK 
 
The Holly-Tree 
 
 9- -*- V ^ ~~ 
 
 O! Ho! for the Hoi - ly - tree, Ti.s the tree for New Year s 
 
 glee, When the wind blows cold, and the trees look old, Then Ho! for the Hoi - ly - 
 
 
 
 tree. 
 
 O green Hoi - ly - tree 
 
 [ _H v 
 
 O green Hoi - ly tree, 
 
 May we all grow old like thee, O ____ green Hoi - ly - tree. 
 
u 
 
 O, Ho, for the Holly Tree 
 
 Tis the tree for the New Year s glee, 
 
 When the winds blow cold, 
 
 And the trees grow old, 
 
 Then Ho, for the Holly Tree ! 
 
 O green Holly Tree, 
 
 O green Holly Tree, 
 
 May we all grow old like thee ; 
 O green Holly Tree. 
 
THE HOLLY TREE 
 
 "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto chee, the 
 fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify 
 the place of my sanctuary." _ ISAIAH 
 
 Out in the forest, among the trees, lives a family 
 named evergreen. 
 
 There are big evergreens and little evergreens, and 
 they have big and little relatives over the sea, 
 
 Every name has a meaning, and this family got its 
 lovely name because of a lovely habit it has; that is, 
 both big evergreens and little evergreens never lose their 
 leaves in the winter, but stand waving their green arms 
 and offering shelter to birds and wild animals when 
 winds blow cold and snow piles high. In winter as well 
 as summer they are ever green. 
 
 Now just as we have brothers and sisters, aunts and 
 uncles and cousins, so this evergreen family is divided 
 into a great many relatives. 
 
 First, there are the tall, dark, solemn members. These 
 are called firs and pines. They are very stiff and straight 
 
 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 like soldiers and have leaves like small swords, or spread- 
 out leaves looking like stiff green sea-weed, and their 
 fruit, which looks like small, dried-up pineapples, is 
 called pine-cones. 
 
 Then there are the lovely, dressy members, the rho 
 dodendrons, laurels, and magnolias. These have smooth, 
 large, glassy leaves and sweet pink and white flowers. 
 They are the pretty ladies of the family, and then, third, 
 there are the two very popular and famous members, the 
 Christmas tree and the holly. 
 
 The Christmas tree belongs to the firs and pines and 
 tradition, and will be heard of in the December song of 
 the tree. 
 
 The holly belongs with the laurels and magnolias, 
 and is the lady of the Church, for it is from the Church 
 that it gets its name holy-tree, or holly-tree. 
 
 Long ages ago, in far-away Rome, the old Romans 
 had a festival in the month of December to celebrate 
 their harvest, and at this time they sent sprigs of the 
 holly to one another with best wishes for a prosperous 
 New Year; but it was not from them that the holly got 
 its name but from the early Christians, who took the 
 holly and decorated their churches with it and called it 
 holy-tree because of the use to which they put it. Up 
 in the land of Germany they called it Christ s thorn, 
 and according to tradition, the holly was the burning 
 
THE HOLLY TREE 
 
 bush in which Jehovah appeared to Moses, for in 
 the warm southern countries the holly grows low and 
 broad and bushy. 
 
 In the northern countries the holly is a big tree from 
 twenty to fifty feet high, and, besides its bright red berries 
 and glossy, green leaves it has a very hard and fine 
 grained wood, white and smooth as ivory, which is used 
 for inlaying with other woods, for making fancy articles, 
 boxes, handles for tools and for metal teapots, and in 
 making many beautiful things. 
 
 Besides being of use and beauty indoors the holly 
 makes lovely hedges for our gardens, and in old-fash 
 ioned days the trees were clipped into fancy and odd 
 shapes. 
 
 We, like the early Christians, decorate our churches 
 with the holy-tree, or holly-tree, and, like the old 
 Romans, we send sprigs of it to our friends with wishes 
 for a happy New Year. 
 
"iMarch in Janiveer, Janiveer in March I Fear" 
 
"FKBRUEER DOTH CUT AND SHEAR" 
 
The Herald-Tree 
 
 With energy 
 
 N S 
 
 N N-r - 
 
 Z3n 
 
 When the days are short and cold, Then the trees like sol - diers 
 
 bold, Stand up in a martial row, Pointing to the South, you know. And up 
 
 /TN 
 
 
 high their voi - ces cry, 
 
 And up high their voi - ces cry: 
 
 
 
 
 "Stir the sap, my com - rades dear, Stir the sap and nev - er fear. 
 
 E: 
 
 --,, I 
 
 E^?= HE II 
 
 =^z= -*E=E^E^E 
 
 We have heard a bu - gle clear, Spring will soon, will soon be here." 
 
THE HERALD TREK 
 
 When the days are short ana cold 
 Then the trees, like soldiers hold, 
 Stand up in a martial row, 
 Pointing to the South, you know. 
 And up high their voices cry 
 Stir the sap, my comrades dear, 
 Stir the sap and never fear, 
 We have heard a bugle clear, 
 Spring will soon he here ! 
 
THE HERALD TREE 
 
 jfebruarp 
 
 "In the heart of every forest tree 
 
 The blood is all aglee, 
 
 And there s a look about the leafless bowers 
 As if they dreamed of flowers." 
 
 TlMROB 
 
 Trees grow very much as boys and girls grow. They 
 grow from something small and helpless into something 
 large and strong. 
 
 Trees grow from small seeds or stones into great 
 towers of wide-spreading green branches, and they count 
 their years not by wrinkles but by rings, fust as boys 
 and girls need plenty of good, pure blood in order to 
 grow big and strong, so the trees need it too, only their 
 blood is called sap. 
 
 Trees take a long nap in the winter, but in the month 
 of February they show signs of waking up. The sap stirs 
 and then something begins to grow. If you watch a. 
 tree carefully all through the year you will find what a 
 beautiful barometer it is, how it will tell you, in tree 
 language, which season is approaching* 
 
 7 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 The dead-looking trees of winter suddenly change 
 color, little hard buds appear, "when red grows the 
 maple, so fresh and so pleasing," and with every rain and 
 sunbeam glance these buds swell and swell. Blossom 
 by blossom the spring begins, until lo! some fair morn 
 ing the earth is changed into a flower show, the perfume 
 of blossoms fills the air and every tree hangs out its 
 banner. Some are pink, others white and green, still 
 others green, white and pink, and 
 
 "Oh, the birds, the trees, the ruddy 
 And white blossoms, sleek with rain ! " 
 
 Then the next thing we see 
 
 "The blossoms in the sweet May wind 
 Falling like the snow." 
 
 Soon little, hard, green fruits are hanging in their 
 places, the leaves begin to grow large enough to cast 
 shadows over the grass, and we say, "When the branch 
 is tender, and putteth forth her leaves, ye know that 
 the summer is nigh." Then the sun gets warmer and 
 the trees grow big and strong, and "we love them, adore 
 them in the fields, where they are alive, holding their 
 green sun-shades over our heads, talking to us with their 
 hundred thousand whispering tongues, looking down 
 on us with their sweet meekness." Now we know the 
 that summer is at its height, but while we sit underneath 
 
 18 
 
THE HERALD TREE 
 
 some wide-spreading green tree we see a little leaf fall. 
 It turns and turns as it falls and it makes never a sound; 
 but "leaves have their time to fall." It was no accident 
 that made the little leaf jump from the tree to the 
 ground. We look around us in a few more days and we 
 see the grand old oak who 
 
 " Has stood for a thousand years, 
 Has stood and frown d 
 On the trees around, 
 Like a king among his peers ; 
 As round their king they stand, so now, 
 When the riowers their pale leaves fold, 
 The tall trees round him stand array d 
 In their rohes of purple and gold." 
 
 And it is autumn, and the trees are dropping their bright 
 leaves and warm-colored fruits just as a fairy drops his 
 visible cloak. 
 
 It has all been so quietly done, like the turning of 
 the pages of a lovely picture book. Not a single tree 
 was ever heard to complain; each one did its best to 
 make the earth a pleasant, happy, fruitful, beautiful spot. 
 Every tree has had its blossom, its fruit, and its leaf, and 
 "in the leaf is the strength of the tree." 
 
 "Leafless are the trees; their purple branches 
 Spread themselves abroad, like reefs of coral, 
 
 Rising silent 
 In the red sea of the winter sunset." 
 
 19 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 The year is at its end, the winter is come 
 
 " How peaceful sleep 
 The tree-tops altogether." 
 
 But February is the short month, it connects winter 
 with spring, while 
 
 " The Fehruary sunshine steeps your boughs, 
 And tints the buds and swells the leaves within." 
 
February makes a bridge, and March breaks it 
 
"MAD AS A MARCH HARE 
 
The Wind Tree 
 
 ^ J 
 
 *- - 9 *- - 
 
 Blow, blow, blow And O ! ho ! ho ! ho ! 
 
 
 
 Lis-ten to the trees as they snap and sneeze, When the wind in play, 
 
 N-r 
 
 L 
 
 &- 
 
 II 
 
 Twists them ev - ry way, Then tis blow, blow, blow. 
 
THE WIND TREE 
 
 Blow, blow, blow, 
 
 And O, ho, ho, ho ! 
 
 Listen to the trees, 
 
 As they snap and sneeze, 
 
 When the wind in play 
 
 Twists them every way, 
 
 Then tis blow, blow, blow. 
 
THE WIND TREE 
 
 " With rushing winds and gloomy skies 
 The dark and stubborn winter dies; 
 Far off, unseen, spring faintly cries, 
 Bidding her earliest child arise : 
 
 March!" BAYARD TAYLOR 
 
 What is it that we hear but never see ? That pushes 
 us, and pulls us, tears the leaves off the trees, rolls the 
 clouds across the sky, and yet we can never catch nor 
 touch ? 
 
 It is the wind. 
 
 "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 
 the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh 
 and w r hither it goeth." 
 
 The wind is a great musician and makes music soft 
 and low, loud and high. The trees are its instruments, 
 the branches and leaves are the strings and keys upon 
 which it plays when it 
 
 "Sweeps the broad forest in its summer prime 
 As when some master -hand exulting sweeps 
 The keys of some great organ." 
 
 9.7 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 The pine-tree is the deepest bass instrument in the 
 tree orchestra 
 
 " Its cloudy boughs singing, as suiteth the pine, 
 To snow-bearded sea-kings old songs of the brine." 
 
 It sings "in the storm like a prophet" yes, it sings "of 
 wild billows in motion." 
 
 The oak-tree gives another deep sound, steady and 
 free and strong but not so sad as the note of the pine. 
 The oak boughs "make music of the winter air," and 
 
 " In soft, long strokes 
 The wind goes murmuring through the mountain oaks." 
 
 The birch, "most shy and lady-like of trees," has a 
 sweet, high tone "like a ripple, like a river," for its 
 leaves are never still but "palpitate forever." And the 
 tall, lovely perfumed linden-tree "hums with a louder 
 concert," while the gentle poplar, the "quivering pop 
 lar," adds its tone to the chorus. 
 
 The wind plays on the trees in the orchard 
 
 "The summer s song, the autumn s sigh, 
 In the boughs of the apple-tree." 
 
 And down by the brook grows an ancient willow. He 
 is 
 
 " The friend of all the winds, wide armed 
 
 he towers 
 
 And glints his steely aglets in the sun, 
 Or whitens fitfully with sudden bloom 
 Of leaves breeze-lifted." 
 
 28 
 
THE WIiND TREE 
 
 The stately elms with their "nodding crests" and the 
 sycamore and maple have powerful voices when the 
 wind strikes their branches. 
 
 Every tree, big and little, has its own musical note, 
 and the green, dark forest is like a concert hall, tor, 
 besides the wind as conductor and the tree orchestra, 
 there are the singers, the birds. 
 
 " There is singing of birds in the deep, wet woods, 
 In the heart of the listening solitudes, 
 Pewees, and thrushes, and sparrows, not lew, 
 And all the notes of their throats are true." 
 
 Then- 
 
 "The crows go by, a noisy throng; 
 
 And up the leafless tree 
 The nuthatch runs, and nods and clings; 
 The bluebird dips with flashing wings; 
 The robin flutes; the sparrow sings 
 And the swallows float and flee/ 
 
March birds are best 
 
APRIL SHOWERS BRING FORTH MAY FLOWERS 
 
The Rock-a-bye Tree 
 
 Dreamily. 
 
 ^1 
 
 i -\ v- 
 
 __*rZI 
 
 The peach tree and tlie pear. 
 
 Have 
 
 
 =j 
 
 decked their branch - es bare 
 
 With bios - sums white and 
 
 
 pink Which real - ly make you think Of ba - bies 
 
 sweet and fair Then Rock - a - bye bios - soins, in the spring 
 
 rit. 
 
 air Rock - a - bye, rock - a - bye, pink and so fair. 
 
THE ROCK-A-BYE TREE 
 
 The peach tree and the pear 
 Have decked their branches hare 
 With blossoms white and pink. 
 Which really make you think, 
 Of babies sweet and fair. 
 
 Then rock-a-bye Blossoms, 
 
 In the Spring air, 
 
 Rock-a-bye, Rock-a-bye, 
 
 Pink and so fair. 
 
THE ROCK-A-BYE TREE 
 
 "Trees themselves are ours; 
 Fruits are horn of flowers; 
 Peach, and roughest nut, were 
 flowers in the spring." 
 
 LEIGH HUNT 
 
 Side by side in the garden grow 7 the peach-tree and 
 the pear, two of our lovely and delicious fruit trees. 
 
 O pretty trees, growing together under the warm blue 
 sky and bright sun of America, how came you here and 
 from where did you come? 
 
 The little peach-tree shakes its pink blossoms in the 
 spring air without the sign of a green leaf, and the big 
 pear-tree, with its rough bark, spreads out its branches 
 of fair white blossoms surrounded by bright, shining, 
 green leaves. 
 
 When the pink and white blossoms fall to the ground 
 then the peach-tree has long, narrov green leaves and 
 the peaches come with soft, velvety skins and green, bit 
 ter-tasting stones in them. Yes, stones, not seeds, and in 
 them, too, lies hidden the sweet pink and cream-colored 
 
 37 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 fruit. At the same time the rough old pear hangs from its 
 branches long green fruit having a skin as smooth and 
 clean as an apple, with a core and seed like an apple; 
 and when the peaches turn from green to soft yellow and 
 pink, the pears turn yellow and brown. 
 
 O yes, we know they can t possibly be any relation 
 to each other, although they stand side by side in the 
 garden. 
 
 The dainty peach is a foreigner, as strange as the Ara 
 bian Nights, and comes to us from the land of elephants 
 and oriental rugs, for it was brought to us from far-away 
 Persia and India. It is a cousin of the plum, the cherry, 
 apricot and almond- all having stones inside instead of 
 seeds. 
 
 In our country we have large peach orchards, espe 
 cially in the states of New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and 
 Michigan. In England they train the peach against the 
 walls, and often have it in hot-houses. 
 
 Peaches are preserved, dried or made into brandy; but 
 it seems to me the best way to eat one is to sit down on 
 an oriental rug, brush the velvet off the pretty peach- 
 skin very carefully, so it will not pucker the mouth, and 
 then bite slowly into the luscious fruit while one reads 
 a book of fairy tales. 
 
 Now the pear-tree is very different, though it, too, 
 has been brought to us. It is a cousin of the apple, and 
 
 38 
 
THE ROCK-A-BYE TREE 
 
 the old Romans loved both the pear and the apple. I 
 suspect they carried them around in their pockets and 
 scattered the seed. Certainly the pear was brought to us 
 from England by our great-great-grandfathers; we might 
 call it one of the Pilgrim Fathers, and so might we call 
 the apple. There are wild pears and cultivated ones; 
 indeed, there are so many kinds that one hardly knows 
 what to do with them all. Over one thousand different 
 varieties are grown in our country alone. 
 
 Some pears take a long time to ripen and have to be 
 picked late in the autumn, in frosty weather. They are 
 then put in the loft or attic and allowed to ripen, up 
 there in the dark. Oliver Wendell Holmes says that 
 pears make him think of people; that men remind him 
 of pears in their ways of growing old. "Some are ripe at 
 twenty and must be made the most of, for their day 
 is soon over. Some come into their perfect condition 
 late, like the autumn kinds, and they are better than 
 the summer fruit; and some, that, like the winter pears, 
 have been hard and uninviting until all the rest have 
 had their season, get their glow and perfume long after the 
 frost and snow have done their worst with the orchards." 
 
 "There s a dance of leaves in that aspen bower, 
 
 There s a titter of winds in that heechen tree, 
 There s a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower, 
 And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea." 
 
 39 
 
"When April blows his horn, it s good for both hay and corn 
 
"BEANS BLOW BEFORE MAY DOTPI GO 
 
The Blossom Tree 
 
 
 Bios - sums, bios - soms in the month of May, 
 
 
 Tell me, tell me have you come to stay? 
 
 $lp 
 
 w=~ -* -T=j=^ irpr =5= p- 
 
 [:fe^t- r=f= =- = =-^BE 
 
 L - t-K x iX 
 
 Chil dren, chil - dren, we have come to stay, 
 
 1 
 
 On ly we change in - to fruit 
 
 day. 
 
\j 
 
 Blossom, blossom, 
 In the month of May, 
 Tell us, tell us, 
 Have you come to stay? 
 Children, children, 
 We have come to stay, 
 Only \ve change, 
 Into fruit some dav. 
 
THE BLOSSOM TREE 
 
 "Have you seen an apple orchard in the spring? 
 
 In the spring? 
 
 An English apple orchard in the spring? 
 When the spreading trees are hoary 
 With their wealth of promised glory, 
 And the Mavis sings its story, 
 In the spring." 
 
 Wi I.LI AM MARTIN 
 
 One reason why a tree never seems old to us is be 
 cause once every year it is covered with gay blossoms 
 and delicate, green buds. No matter how old it is, it 
 blossoms regularly. The more alive it is the more blos 
 soms it has. 
 
 How the bare, cold, dead-looking branches can so 
 suddenly break out into the lovely, sweet-scented, and 
 delicate pink and white blossoms, is something most 
 wonderful and most beautiful. 
 
 There is a little verse that says, 
 
 " Do like the things in the garden (), 
 Just keep quiet a while and grow, 
 
 This is exactly what the trees do. We never hear them 
 
 47 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 growing, and they never make any fuss about it; but 
 as long as the earth lasts there will be spring, summer, 
 autumn and winter or blossom, leaf, fruit and bare 
 branch. 
 
 There is an old tradition that says: " If the oak gets 
 into leaf before the ash we may expect a fine and pro 
 ductive year, but if the ash comes first into leaf, then 
 look out for a cold summer and a poor harvest." 
 
 April and May are called the "keys of the year." 
 These are the two beautiful blossom months, and if all 
 goes well with the blossoms the fruit will grow mellow 
 and ripe in the autumn, for "everything depends on the 
 beginning." 
 
 This is the importance of being a blossom it is the 
 beginning. The dainty little blossoms with their pink 
 and white faces and the delicate green buds, which make 
 such a fair beginning, what becomes of them all how 
 do they end? 
 
 The blossoms change into fruits and nuts, apples, 
 pears, plums, cherries, peaches, chestnuts and hickory- 
 nuts, walnuts and beechnuts all these and many more 
 that were blossoms in the early spring while the little 
 green buds change into the leaves, the wonderful, ever- 
 changing leaves. 
 
 "The maple puts her corals on in May, 
 But when the autumn southward turns aw r ay, 
 
 48 
 
THE BLOSSOM TREE 
 
 Then in her veins burns most the blood of spring, 
 And every leaf, intensely blossoming, 
 Makes the year s sunset pale the set of day." 
 
 There are always a great many more leaves than there 
 are blossoms, and this is because through the leaves the 
 tree takes in air and sunshine. Trees have to eat and 
 drink to keep alive, and so the roots hunt around in the 
 earth, sometimes traveling a long way to find water. 
 
 But it is the leaf of the tree that does the breath 
 ing. The tree s mouth is under the ground, while its 
 head is high up in the air. Its trunk is very much like 
 our body, for it holds up the tree and its branches. The 
 bark of the tree is its skin. It is very precious and should 
 never be cut or hurt. Then the branches are its arms, 
 and on these arms are its pretty green leaves and fair 
 blossoms, or fruit. 
 
 The leaves are part of the life of the tree, but the 
 fruits are the tree s children. They are like little birds in 
 a green nest. At first they hang close and tight to the 
 branches, but by and by, as they get big and strong, they 
 drop off and go out into the world in baskets, and 
 barrels, and bags; or they roll off somewhere under the 
 high grass and fallen leaves, and the first thing we know 
 there is a new little tree; tor all fruits have seeds inside of 
 them which are the baby trees. 
 
 49 
 
A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay " 
 
CALM WEATHER IN JUNF 
 SETS CORN IN TUNE" 
 
The Rose-Tree 
 
 A - round the red rose-tree, Oh come, dance with me, Tis 
 
 now in pink - est bloom... And has a sweet perfume Oh 
 
 
 
 
 
 rose tree. fair rose - tree, Shake thy pet - al.s o er me, 
 
 E5F ^=J=E =fl 
 
 ++=^- y-J _= zadbizz ==t 
 
 Pink - est bloom,., sweet per-fume. Oh rose- tree, fair rose - tree. 
 
THE ROSE TREE 
 
 Around the Red Rose Tree, 
 Oh ! come and dance with me, 
 Tis now in pinkest bloom, 
 And has a sweet perfume. 
 O Rose Tree, fair Rose Tree, 
 Shake thy petals over me, 
 Pinkest bloom, sweet perfume, 
 O Rose Tree, fair Rose Tree. 
 
THE ROSE TREE 
 
 Slum 
 
 " Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, 
 
 Old Time is still a Hying; 
 And the same flower that smiles to-day, 
 To-morrow will be dying." 
 
 ROBERT HER RICK 
 
 Some trees grow as high as our hearts, and this is the 
 height of the rose-tree. 
 
 The rose family is very large; there are wild roses, 
 hot-house roses, and garden roses; hundreds and hun 
 dreds of roses, red, white, pink and yellow. Some of 
 them grow in little red pots, some grow big and bushy 
 beside old fences, some climb and climb, high and still 
 higher. 
 
 Children, birds and squirrels love best the fruit and 
 nut trees; men love the great oak, the maple, and the 
 rich lumber trees; while poets and lovers love the rose- 
 tree. 
 
 Rose-trees grow all over the world, but it is said by 
 Sir John Mandeville that the first rose-tree grew in Beth 
 lehem. A Jewish maiden living there was loved by a 
 
 57 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 cruel man whom she could not love in return. So in 
 revenge he said she was a demoniac, and had her con 
 demned to be burned at the stake. But the flames would 
 not burn the stake; instead it blossomed out full of roses, 
 and the maiden stood beneath the "first rose-tree seen 
 on earth since Paradise was lost." This rose-tree had both 
 white and red roses on it: the white roses blooming from 
 the wood that did not burn, and the red from that which 
 caught fire. 
 
 Ever since that time has the rose-tree had its thorns, 
 its wonderful perfume and its beauty. Because the first 
 rose-tree sprang from round a virgin martyr at Bethlehem, 
 many pictures of the saints are painted with roses. 
 
 But the rose has been carried from peaceful Bethle 
 hem and from the stake out into the big, fighting world. 
 It has gone into the battle-field, and the red and white 
 roses have had to fight and see each other bleeding and 
 dying on the smoky field of war. 
 
 It was the "Wars of the Roses" that lasted thirty 
 years an English war, of brothers; and in England 
 you will see the rose used as a sign on inns, and on coats- 
 of-arms; it being an emblem of England, and also an 
 emblem of silence. 
 
 Besides being a sign of love and war, the rose is one 
 of the emblems of our Church and religion. It is said 
 that in the time of the Crusades the common June 
 
 58 
 
THE ROSK TREE 
 
 rose, that lovely rose, was brought to France from Syria. 
 Other roses are said to have come from Damascus and 
 the Caucasus Mountains, from Persia, China, India. 
 Little Holland sent the moss-rose to England in 1596. 
 
 While other trees give us wood for houses, furniture, 
 boats and carriages; while they give us fruits and nuts, 
 sugar and vinegar for our table; shade for the hot days 
 and fire for the cold days the rose-tree gives us per 
 fume yes, perfume. 
 
 "The gift of perfume * * is a special grace like 
 genius or like beauty, and never becomes common or 
 cheap." 
 
 Perfume is like the magic wand of a fairy: one little 
 drop of perfume can make you see far-away gardens with 
 blue skies and singing birds and roses, roses, yards and 
 yards of roses, and gay, laughing children. 
 
 To make a pound of this perfume takes four thousand 
 pounds of rose-leaves. A single drop of this pound of 
 perfume costs a great deal of money, so there is usually 
 but one drop in a bottle. 
 
 The name of this perfume is Attar of Roses, and it is 
 made in India and Turkey. Other countries make rose 
 perfume and rose-water; but it is this perfume that 
 comes to us drop by drop that can make us forget it is 
 winter, and dream of roses blooming over the head of 
 the maiden of Bethlehem, dream of the bloody battle- 
 
 59 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 fields in England, and of the Crusaders riding home on 
 their prancing steeds from the holy wars with roses on 
 their hearts. 
 
 " I will plight with the dainty rose. 
 For fairest of all is she." 
 
 60 
 
If on the eighth of June it rain, 
 
 It foretells a wet harvest, man sain " 
 
"NO TEMPEST GOOD JULY" 
 
The Cherry-Tree 
 
 In the spring the cher - ry - tree, Is as white as it can be, 
 
 
 White as pop - corn, white as milk, White and lino as dain - ty silk; 
 
 
 But when spring has passed a way, And warm sum- mer s coin e to stay, 
 
 
 
 Then my milk - white cher - ry - tree, Turns as red as red can be. 
 
 
 Of - ten have I asked it why, Yet it nev - er makes re - ply, 
 
 -JT9 
 
 But keej)S turn - ing white to red, 
 
 
 In the night when I m in b-d. 
 
Tn the Spring the Cherry Tree 
 Is as white as white can be, 
 But when Spring has passed away 
 And warm Summer s come to stav 
 Then my milk-white Cherry Tree 
 Turns as red as red can be. 
 Often have I asked it why 
 Vet it never makes reply ; 
 But keeps turning white to red 
 In the night when I m in bed. 
 
THE CHERRY TREE 
 
 " You will find something far greater in the woods than 
 you will ever find in books. Stones and trees will teach 
 you that which you will never learn from masters." 
 
 ST. BERNARD 
 
 Did you ever wonder who gave the trees their names? 
 Why do we call one tree by one name and the next tree 
 by another? The gay little cherry-tree growing in our 
 garden with its white blossoms looking like fresh pop-corn 
 strung on its branches, and later in the year its bright 
 bunches of scarlet, almost heart-shaped, fruit, where 
 and how did it get its spring-like and pretty name: 5 
 
 Long, long ago, in a far-away land, the mighty Ro 
 mans started out to conquer the world, and wherever 
 they went they took their laws with them. They did not 
 kill the strangers they conquered, but they tried to make 
 Romans of them, and they learned all they could from 
 their enemies. When coming home from a victory they 
 would bring many new and lovely things. 
 
 One time they came home with nuts in their pockets 
 chestnuts! Again they came back with cherries, and 
 
 67 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 that is how the pretty tree got its name, for they found 
 the tree in Asia Minor in a place called Cerasus, which, 
 turned into our language, means cherry. 
 
 What an old, old name it is, and what a distant one! 
 And yet it sounds quite new and fresh and home-like to 
 us here in the United States of America. 
 
 How surprised those old Romans would be to see our 
 three hundred kinds of cherries; for they knew of but 
 eight or ten kinds. 
 
 There are two different families of cherry-trees, the 
 cultivated and the wild. The cultivated family grows in 
 our gardens, and, in the summer months there is nearly 
 always one or more of the family hanging its fruit ready 
 for man s or bird s meal -time. The color of the fruit 
 varies all the way from white to almost black, count 
 ing all shades of red between. 
 
 The Japanese artists have drawn and painted and em 
 broidered the cherry-blossoms on fans and vases and 
 kimonos, and have made artificial flowers of it, looking 
 so like the real cherry as to make us think it is a branch 
 in full bloom. 
 
 It takes less time to pick three or four cherries off the 
 tree than to pick one, for, unlike most other fruits, the 
 cherries grow in bunches. The cherry-tree laden with its 
 clusters of small shiny fruit seems to many the prettiest 
 of all the fruit-trees. 
 
 68 
 
THE CHERRY TREE 
 
 Ruskin tells us that "the fruit of a tree is either for 
 the continuance of its race, or for the good, or harm, of 
 other creatures. In no case is it good for the tree itself." 
 
 Now there is a member of the cherry family quite 
 different from the cultivated garden cherry. It is wild? 
 and grows in the forest to be a big tree, O yes, a very 
 big tree, with its long green arms waving a hundred feet 
 in the air. The fruit of this tree is not very valuable, but 
 the tree itself is, because of its wood, which is used in 
 the making of furniture. The wood is as beautiful, in 
 its way, as the white blossoms and red fruit of the culti 
 vated family. It is red, deep red in color, becoming 
 more and more beautiful the older it grows, and it takes 
 a high polish when made into chairs, beds, clocks, doors, 
 and many, many other things. So you see we have 
 cherry-trees in the garden and we have cherry-trees in 
 the house; and what is still a very strange thing we may 
 eat cherry preserves for our supper and after supper take 
 some medicine made from still another member of the 
 cherry-tree family, which is called choke-cherry. 
 
 This little tree likes best to grow beside rivers and 
 brooks, and when its small, bitter, dark berries are ripe, 
 the birds are nearly as thick on the tree as the berries; 
 for this is a tree the birds love and children care little 
 about, because the berries are to the birds like wine; but 
 the bark of the tree is made into a bitter medicine that 
 
 69 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 is a good tonic, and is given to children when they feel 
 tired and have bad colds. 
 
 Over in England, and some parts of Europe, grows a 
 cherry-tree belonging to the wild family and its fruit is 
 highly prized in France because it is food for the poor. 
 The wood of this tree is also used for furniture and 
 musical instruments. The white and black keys of the 
 piano are made from cherry-wood and covered with 
 ivory or stained black. So the cherry-tree sings for us 
 too, and so lightens our hearts while it gladdens our 
 eyes and satisfies our appetite. O, a wonderful thing is 
 a tree! 
 
 "Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every 
 tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." 
 
 GENESIS 
 
 70 
 
" If the first of July it be rainy weather, 
 Twill rain more or less for four weeks together" 
 
DRY AUGUST AND WARM 
 DOTH HARVEST NO HARM 
 
The Maple-Tree 
 
 & 
 
 *t 
 
 7? 
 
 +- 
 
 -N-, 1- 
 
 When the sun - shine s hot, I know a sha - dy 
 
 v 
 
 spot 
 
 Where I shall shel - ter d be. 
 
 / 
 
 Un - der - 
 
 ijz: 
 
 neath the ma pie - tree. 
 
 * P 
 
 Ma pie, ma pie, 
 
 II 
 
 green ma - pie - tree, Whis - per, whis - per thy songs to 
 
HK MAPLE TREE 
 
 When the sun shines hot, 
 I know a shady spot, 
 Where I shall sheltered he 
 Underneath a Maple Tree 
 Maple, Maple, 
 Green Maple Tree, 
 Whisper, whisper, 
 Thv songs to me. 
 
THE MAPLE TREE 
 
 August 
 
 "In autumn the leaves of the maple 
 Pave the floors of the palace with gold." 
 
 LONGFELLOW 
 
 In America there lives a big, green family of trees 
 which we call natives, as we do the Indians. That means 
 that they were born here; no one brought them over to 
 this country from some other country. 
 
 Among this big, green family is the candy-tree or 
 
 sugar-maple. There are many other kinds of maple-trees 
 growing in many lands besides ours, even as far awav as 
 Asia, but the sugar maple is a real American and grows 
 best in Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsyl 
 vania, Ohio and Indiana. It is this sweet tree that gives 
 us our good maple-sugar candy and syrup for our cakes. 
 
 The sugar in this tree is the same as that in the sugar 
 cane, and begins its journey up the tree early in the 
 spring, as early as February. While other trees have 
 apple, pear, cherry, plum and peach blossoms, the maple 
 gets ahead of them and starts its inside boilers at work 
 when all out-doors looks bleak and bare. 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 We bore little holes in the trunks of the trees not far 
 from the ground, and in these holes, pipes, often made 
 of the elder, are placed, and then, drop by drop, the 
 sweet sugar comes out into the buckets. Then it is put 
 into huge kettles and boiled and boiled until the water 
 is got out of it and it turns into sugar and syrup. 
 
 The wood of the sugar-maple is good for fire-wood 
 and charcoal, and from it some beautiful furniture is 
 made, called bird s-eye maple, because of the strange 
 twist in its grain that looks like the eye of a bird. 
 
 All maples are beautiful trees to look at from early 
 spring till late autumn they stand like large parasols 
 stuck into the ground to shelter us from the too hot 
 rays of the sun. 
 
 Their great, green leaves spread and spread, and 
 change from bright, rich green into orange, scarlet, 
 crimson, and yellow, pure as gold, through which the 
 sunshine bids us a good by in autumn. 
 
 The fruit of the maple is very curious it looks some 
 what like a pretty green butterfly, for the fruit has wings, 
 so that the wind can carry it and plant a maple far away. 
 
 There is one maple called the sycamore, which is a 
 big, big tree, growing sometimes as high as ninety feet. 
 It likes the sea and exposed places, and even a sycamore 
 when growing inland in a quiet garden-spot seems to 
 feel lonely and long for the sea. If you will listen when 
 
THE MAPLE TREE 
 
 the wind blows across its great branches and big leaves, 
 von will hear the tree murmuring deep and low, and it 
 will make you think of the sea and the deep, low voice 
 of many waters. 
 
 The Norway maple is the greenest ot the family and 
 turns the purest gold in the autumn, while the sweet- 
 gum maple stands all winter long like a deserted Christ 
 mas tree, having nothing left on it but queer little spiked 
 balls, hanging from its branches bv long slender stems. 
 
 Maples love the woods and go climbing up and down 
 the hillsides; they almost seem to travel, sending their 
 little green cargo out on the sweet spring air. 
 
 " Set trees poor and they will grow rich ; 
 Set them rich and they will grow poor. 
 
 79 
 
" It the twenty-fourth of August be fair and clear, 
 Then hope for a prosperous autumn that year" 
 
SEPTEMBER BLOW SOFT 
 
 TILL THE FRUIT S IN THE LOFT" 
 
The Apple-Tree 
 
 Allegretto, 
 
 
 When I go to school I car - ry with me, A 
 
 __fv pv= =!_._ zqzi i 
 
 E*E EfEEfEE E =^= =^ =i^ 
 
 _ p ^ 1_ ^__ 
 
 big red ap - pie from 
 
 ap - pie - tree, And 
 
 . 
 
 A --- IT--- iz^zizi^izq 
 
 __=E^EjE "i==i= 
 
 my teach - er says, as she shares it with me, "What 
 
 I . 
 
 --FV- 
 
 
 bi g red ap - pie from a dear old tree. 
 
 II 
 
THE APPLE TREE 
 
 When I go to school, 
 
 carry with me 
 A big red apple 
 From our Apple Tree. 
 And my teacher says, 
 As she shares it with me 
 "What a big red apple 
 From a dear old tree." 
 
THE APPLE TREE 
 
 istptcmbcr 
 
 "What plant we in this apple-tree 
 Fruits that shall swell in sunny June, 
 And redden in the August noon, 
 And drop, when gentle airs come by, 
 That Ian the blue September sky." 
 
 BRYANT 
 
 Some families are great travelers and in their travels 
 they greatly improve such a family is the dearly be 
 loved and highly prized apple family. 
 
 Of all the trees none, perhaps, has seen so much of 
 the world as the apple. Its ancestor is supposed to be 
 the wild crab-apple, that sweet-scented tree growing 
 wild in many lands, having small tart apples. 
 
 But just compare a wild crab-apple with a big, red- 
 cheeked spitzenberg, or a Rhode Island greening, and 
 you will see what travel and cultivation can do, even for 
 a fruit tree. 
 
 The Romans long ago loved and cultivated the apple 
 and took it with them up to their newly conquered 
 country- -Britain, and the Pilgrim Fathers loved the 
 
 8? 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 apple and brought it with them to their new-found 
 home America. 
 
 It is said that the apples that grow in our eastern 
 states are richer in taste but not so good looking as 
 those in the western states, but, be that as it may, the 
 apple is still traveling and improving, and now the 
 American apples are sent to Europe, China and India. 
 It is as though they had started out to make a journey 
 around the world, and in doing it had earned much 
 praise, made good names for themselves, and done good 
 work; for every country wherein they have lived has 
 something quite wonderful to tell of the apple. 
 
 Here is one of the stories they tell of the apple in 
 the lands of Greece and Italy: 
 
 Once on a time at a great wedding among the gods 
 and goddesses there was one goddess not invited. This 
 hurt her feelings so badly that she took an apple, a 
 beautiful golden apple, and, writing on it "To the 
 fairest," she threw it so that it fell in the midst of the 
 wedding-guests. Now she wanted this apple to cause 
 trouble and misfortune, and it did, for ever since then 
 it has been called the apple of discord. As soon as the 
 guests saw it and what was written on it each of the 
 three most beautiful goddesses at the feast thought she 
 ought to have it. But as there were three fair goddesses 
 and only one apple, a great dispute arose. There seemed 
 
 88 
 
THE APPLE TREE 
 
 no way to settle the quarrel until it was decided to ask 
 a mortal man which was the fairest of the three. 
 
 Now the first one wanted the honor of being the 
 fairest, so she said she would give power to the mortal 
 if he would only give her the apple; and the second fair 
 one said she would give him glory in war; and the third 
 smiled and said if he would give her the apple she would 
 give him the most beautiful woman ever seen. 
 
 So the mortal gave the apple to the last one, and she 
 gave him the most beautiful woman. But this meant 
 more than the mortal knew, for in accepting the gift he 
 lost not only his Hie, but his honor, the lives of his 
 friends, destroyed a great and beautiful city, and caused 
 a dreadful war. 
 
 Alas, for the apple of discord! 
 
 This is what is called a mythological apple, and another 
 of the same kind grew up in a far northern country. This 
 is a fairy story about a goddess who had a box of pre 
 cious apples, one of which a god ate whenever he felt 
 he was growing old, and so was kept ever young. These 
 are called apples of perpetual youth and belong to the 
 same mythological family spoken of above. 
 
 When the apple got up to England it grew in nice, 
 pleasant, real gardens, where little boys and girls could 
 climb its branches and cat its lovely fruit. One day a 
 young English gentleman sat in a garden thinking about 
 
 89 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 many things, when, snap! plump! down fell an apple 
 and up jumped the nice English gentleman. I suspect 
 he loved that apple all the rest of his life, for he was 
 Sir Isaac Newton, and it was this big, rosy apple that 
 helped him to solve one of the hardest riddles ever 
 thought of. We call the answer to this riddle, which 
 the apple helped Sir Isaac to find, the great and won 
 derful law of gravitation. 
 
 This was the scientific apple. 
 
 At the present time there are so many names for 
 apples that it is impossible to give them all. But no 
 matter what its name is, every apple is good to cook, to 
 eat, to turn into cider or vinegar. They come to us all 
 the year round and from many places, for they keep 
 better than any other fruit; but the best place of all to 
 enjoy one is at its own home in the orchard, under the 
 spreading branches of an old apple-tree. There, while 
 the wind sings low among the bright fruit, you may eat 
 and listen to the songs the leaves are singing of their 
 many journeys over sea and land. 
 
 " It is autumn, and incessant 
 
 Piped the quail from shocks and sheaves, 
 And, like living coals, the apples 
 
 Burned among the withering leaves." 
 
 90 
 
" Tis pity fair weather should do any harm 
 
ugar-<plum 
 
 -GOOD OCTOBER, A GOOD BLAST, 
 TO BLOW THE HOG ACORN AND MAST 
 
The Sugar-Plum Tree 
 
 =*= .- E^E =^3 
 
 == --. E^^^^E ~i 
 
 Gay leaves are fall ing, Squir - rels are call - ing 
 
 
 Come, lit - tie chil - dren, come, 
 
 Jack Frost is drop - ping, 
 
 
 Fronj tree - tops flop - ping, Nuts like brown su - gar - plums. 
 
THE SUGAR-PLUM TREE 
 
 Gay leaves are falling, 
 Squirrels are calling, 
 "Come, little children, come, 
 Jack Frost is dropping, 
 From tree-tops flopping, 
 Nuts like brown sugar-plums. 
 
THE SUGAR- PLUM TREE 
 
 October 
 
 "Nuts among the Romans made a standing dish at 
 dessert; they were also common toys for children; 
 hence to put away childish things is, in Latin, to put 
 your nuts away." 
 
 Because of the age and beauty of the chestnut we will 
 begin the song ot the sugar-plum trees with it. Can any 
 of us think of a tree being five thousand, one hundred 
 and fifty years old? Hut such is the age claimed for a 
 huge chestnut-tree growing on Mount Etna. It ranks 
 with four or fi\ 7 e of the oldest trees on the earth, and its 
 size is as remarkable as its age. 
 
 It has received its name " the Hundred-Horse Chest 
 nut" because once on a time, when a royal lady and 
 her royal companions were caught out in a sudden 
 shower, they made a dash for the wide-spreading arms 
 of this huge tree, and the hundred horsemen could all 
 get under the old tree s shelter, it was so big. It has a 
 huge hollow trunk, which is used by shepherds and their 
 flocks for shelter. 
 
 Do the years seem long to a tree, I wonder P Think 
 
 97 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 of standing for more than a thousand years! Brooks 
 run down hills into the sea; clouds fall in rain on the 
 earth, the sea rises and falls, is constantly moving and 
 being caught up into the sky to be made into clouds 
 again; rocks wear away and crumble; flowers bloom and 
 go to seed, curl up and bow down; but a tree stands in 
 one place all its life, while deeper and deeper go its roots 
 seeking food. Farther than any other growing thing 
 does the root of a tree penetrate our earth, and higher 
 and higher in the sunshine and storm spread its branches. 
 
 England has a famous old chestnut-tree that was 
 used as a boundary mark in the reign of King John, and 
 in France there is one nearly a thousand years old. 
 
 The old fighting, traveling Romans were fond of nam 
 ing things, and they named the chestnut-tree just as they 
 did the cherry from the place they first found it, a 
 town in Thessaly called Castanea. 
 
 In Europe the wood of the chestnut is used in house 
 building and in making furniture, and the nuts grow to 
 be big, fat things which are made into meal for bread. 
 The delicious marrons glaces are made from these foreign 
 chestnuts. Our chestnuts are much smaller and sweeter, 
 and we use the wood to make posts and fences. 
 
 The chestnut belongs to a famous tree family and has 
 /or relations the oak and beech. Look at a chestnut, 
 an acorn and a beechnut and see if you think they look 
 
THE SUGAR- PLUM TREE 
 
 alike. The beechnut is a dear little French nut a 
 real, three-cornered cockade and the sabots, or wood 
 en shoes, of France are made of beech wood. This does 
 not mean that the beech-tree grows only in France; no, 
 the beautiful tree grows all over Europe and America. 
 In our country it often stands a hundred feet high, so 
 its little nuts have a great fall to reach the earth. Squir 
 rels watch and wait for these nuts and love them as well 
 as children do. 
 
 There are many kinds of beech-trees, the white, the 
 red, one with bright, blood-colored leaves, one with 
 copper-colored leaves, one with leaves spotted with white, 
 another with leaves cut into narrow strips, trees weeping, 
 sweeping the ground with their branches; but the kind 
 we are best acquainted with grows tall and straight. They 
 are clean and green, and throw a delightful shade in the 
 hot days; and then in the autumn, red, yellow and brown 
 turn the leaves, sometimes clinging to the tree all through 
 the winter. 
 
 Indians and woodmen call this tree a safe shelter in a 
 thunder-storm, for it is so seldom struck by lightning. The 
 wood of the beech is not firm, but rots in the air, so no 
 very large thing is made from it except mill-wheels, 
 which the water protects from rot. 
 
 Every American flag-pole should be made of either 
 the sugar-maple or the hickory-tree, for both these trees 
 
 99 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 are our very own native to our country. They have 
 always grown here and the hickory got its name from the 
 Indians, not from any Roman nor Englishman. The In 
 dians pressed an oily liquor from the hickory-nuts, and 
 from this the tree gets it pretty name. 
 
 It is such a wild tree that it likes to stay out of doors 
 all the time, if possible, and its wood is not good for 
 furniture and house articles. It is very tough, however, 
 so tough that it has become an old saying "as tough 
 as hickory," and for this reason it is used for carriage- 
 shafts, whip-handles and wheel-spokes. Think what fun 
 it is to go driving in a hickory-tree! 
 
 There are a number of different trees in the hickory 
 family. The best nuts for eating come from the shell- 
 bark, or shag-bark, tree, while the next best nuts come 
 from the thick-shelled hickory. 
 
 To this family belongs the pecan, which is a hickory 
 growing in the far western and southern states. 
 
 So give three cheers for the hickory-tree that waves 
 its beautiful green branches over the "land of the free 
 and the home of the brave." 
 
 We must think of trees as looking a little like the 
 country in which they were first found. Look at a walnut 
 and guess where it came from not the English walnut 
 but the common kind press it and smell the aromatic 
 odor and see how it stains the hands a queer yellow. It 
 
 TOO 
 
THE SUGAR-PLUM TREE 
 
 is not a dainty nut, but is rich and full of oil and per 
 fume and has this queer yellow dye. Well, it is a "native 
 of Persia, and has been cultivated in Europe since 1562, 
 and it flourishes in gardens in the United States from 
 Massachusetts southward and westward." 
 
 The name walnut means foreign nut, and has nothing 
 to do with a wall; but with an old foreign word "wal" 
 meaning strange; "strange-nut" or walnut. The English 
 walnut came originally from Naples and Sicily. 
 
 The common walnut was known to the old story- 
 loving people as Jove s food, and was considered a roval 
 nut. But we to-day think more of the walnut wood 
 than we do of the nut. Many of us have slept for years 
 in walnut cradles and beds, and have sat on walnut 
 chairs. Besides nuts and line timber, some foreign wal 
 nuts give a quantity of oil used for the table, for burn 
 ing in lamps, and artists mix some of their paints with it. 
 A dye is made from it as well as a wine. 
 
 Think what a wonder-tree this is how like a fairy 
 it is how it turns into so many things. 
 
 First, the sap is changed into wine. 
 
 Second, the bark, leaves, roots and husks into dye. 
 
 Third, the oil is used for food, for burning, and for 
 pictures. 
 
 Fourth, the timber for all kinds of furniture. 
 
 Fifth, the nuts, royal Jove s food. 
 
 101 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 But more wonderful still is the cocoanut-tree; with 
 one of these in the yard we should have a grocery and 
 dry-goods store all of our very own, and need never go 
 down town to shop. 
 
 O, of all strange trees the cocoanut is the oddest, with 
 its tall, straight pole-like trunk, having no branches, but 
 at the very top a bunch of fifteen or twenty feather-like 
 leaves, under which the funny, monkey-faced nuts grow. 
 All this at the very top of a long pole that is sometimes 
 twice as high as a four-story house. The name coco 
 means ugly mask, and because the nuts look like funny 
 monkeys the tree was given its queer name. 
 
 The cocoanut is a tropical pioneer and many of its 
 family love the sea and grow best by its shores, send 
 ing their nuts their big, hairy-shelled nuts out to 
 sea, like little boats, to land on some far-away shore. 
 
 Suppose you lived in South America instead of North 
 America and had a cocoanut-tree in your yard. When 
 you got up in the morning you would wash your hands 
 with water and soap; the soap would have been made 
 from the old nuts of the cocoanut-tree; then you would 
 wash your teeth with a tooth-powder made from the 
 shell of the nuts. 
 
 After this you would comb your hair with a comb 
 made from a rib of a leaf; then you would go to break 
 fast and drink cocoanut milk out of a lovely, highly 
 
THE SUGAR-PLUM TREE 
 
 polished little cup made from the hard shell. You would 
 be seated in a chair beautifully inlaid with old cocoanut 
 wood, which is called porcupine and is very lovely when 
 used in furniture. 
 
 The little dress you had on would be made from the 
 old leaves, as well as the hat you would wear, and the 
 basket you would carry as you walked down to the 
 water, where you would step into a canoe made from 
 the trunk of the tree with paddles made from the rib of 
 a leaf. You see the leaf of a cocoanut-tree is very big 
 and strong. 
 
 When you came home for luncheon and were sitting 
 on the front porch, you would lean back against a post 
 made from the cocoanut and fan yourself with a cocoa- 
 nut fan made from an old leaf. 
 
 The fish-nets you left down at the beach, drying in 
 the sun, would also have been made from the old leaves, 
 as well as the writing-paper on your desk. 
 
 At luncheon you would eat young cocoanut leaves 
 cooked much like cabbage, and you would use cocoanut 
 vinegar and oil for your salad, and would finish your 
 meal with a glass of palm wine made from the flowers 
 of the famous tree. 
 
 Of course you would have cocoanut candy and plenty 
 of it, for there is a sugar taken from the tree as well as 
 milk and oil. This is not a highly prized sugar, but it is 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 quite peculiar in that, if mixed with lime, it makes a 
 strong cement. 
 
 As it grew dark and night shut out the world you 
 would go to the barn to see the horses by the light of a 
 cocoanut lantern. This would be made from another 
 old leaf of the tree, and when you came back to the 
 house, the lamp would be burning with oil made from 
 the old nuts. As you stepped into the hall your feet 
 would touch a matting made from the husk of the nut, 
 and, taking a cocoanut candle made from an old nut, 
 you would go to bed, having sheets made from old leaves 
 and a mattress made from the husk. 
 
 But before you got in bed your nurse would comb 
 your hair with your cocoanut comb and rub cocoanut 
 hair-dressing into your hair and then would rub all your 
 body with cocoanut-oil. 
 
 I think you would probably dream of a cocoanut-tree 
 having monkeys hanging on it instead of nuts, and you 
 would think what a hard tree it would be to climb hav 
 ing no branches. 
 
 The first thing you would hear when you awoke in the 
 morning, would be some one sweeping the walk with a 
 cocoanut broom, and, as the sun came peeping through 
 your window it would light up your arrows and spear made 
 from the ribs of the leaves, and you would jump out of 
 your cocoanut bed happy and glad to begin your fun 
 
 104 
 
THE SUGAR-PLUM TREE 
 
 Yes, it really seems that a cocoanut-tree is a tropical 
 department store, and that to have a few in one s yard 
 would be most economical. It seems to be good for 
 everything but shade. 
 
 The almond-nut belongs to the peach, plum and 
 cherry family, and grows around the beautiful, blue 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 The hazel-nut and filberts belong to one family; we 
 get our best filberts from Spain and southern Europe. 
 
 Here is a modern dessert and where it comes from: 
 
 The hickory-nut, the national nut. 
 Chestnuts, from all over the world. 
 Beechnuts, from Europe and home. 
 Filberts, from Spain and southern Europe. 
 Almonds, from the blue Mediterranean. 
 Walnuts, from Persia, Europe and home. 
 Cocoanuts, from South America, the East and 
 West Indies, and all other tropical lands. 
 
 105 
 

 An evening red, and a morning gray, is a sign of a fair day 
 
<s 
 
 "NOVEMBER TAKE FLAIL, 
 LET SHIPS NO MORE SAIL 
 
The Ghost Tree 
 
 ;^ 
 
 The Ghost - tree sings ou No - vein - b-r nights As it 
 
 f Jff- ,- * 
 
 burns, and it burns with a bin ish light; It 
 
 rit. dim. 
 
 N- 
 
 --0 ---{- ^ - ^ 
 
 snaps up the chim - ney with right good might, And falls on the hearth in - to 
 
 
 
 
 ash - es white "I am a ghost, I am a ghost, 
 
 ^J;* * *t 
 
 i=r. 
 
 Hv V- 
 
 Sings the brave old tree, 
 
 am a ghost, 
 
 II 
 
 I am a ghost," As it lights up the hearth stone tor you and me. 
 
.^ : V\ 
 
 r/ 
 
 
 THE GHOST TREE 
 
 The Ghost Tree sings on November 
 
 nights, 
 As it burns, and it burns, with a bluish 
 
 light. 
 It snaps up the chimney with right good 
 
 might, 
 
 And falls on the hearth into ashes white. 
 " I am a ghost, I am a ghost," 
 Sings the brave old tree. 
 "I am a ghost, I am a ghost." 
 As it lights up the hearth-stone 
 For vou and me. 
 
THE GHOST TREE 
 
 "The woods against a stormy sky 
 Their giant branches tossed." 
 
 HEMANS 
 
 As we sit around the great roaring fire and watch the 
 old log snap, and blow, and whirl, and vanish up the 
 chimney, we think this is the end of our good times out 
 under the beautiful green trees. For the trees stand 
 stiff, and bare, and cold out in the fast darkening days, 
 and soon the days will be shorter and the nights longer, 
 and we shall have no more tree-songs until the coming 
 of the spring. 
 
 Hut listen to the old log as it burns; there is nothing 
 weary or sad about it, and suppose we take courage 
 and see what becomes of all the trees surely all are 
 not used for firewood. 
 
 I have lived in a tree all my lite, yes, a real tree, done 
 over into a style comfortable tor me to live in. That is, 
 I have always lived in a frame or wood house and I 
 wonder how many little boys and girls sleep and dream 
 in tree-tops every night and have never known it. 
 
 "3 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 Run and see if you are sleeping in a wooden bed, and 
 if you are, find out what kind of tree made your bed. 
 Is it a pine? Then read all the stories and pocrns about 
 the heroic pine family; or, is it a walnut, cherry, mahog 
 any or maple? Every one of these trees has a story well 
 worth knowing. 
 
 And when you eat your dinner remember you are 
 really at a picnic, for the chair you sit on is a tree, and 
 the table you are eating from is a tree, and if you get a 
 good book to read and take with you a nice red apple 
 and crawl up into a big chair before the fire, you will 
 like to know that you are still in the wide-spreading 
 arms of some famous old tree family. O yes, indeed, our 
 homes are full of trees. 
 
 This is what John Ruskin says of a piece of wood: 
 "It can not grow, but will not decay; keeps record of 
 its years of life, but surrenders them to become a con 
 stantly serviceable thing: which may be sailed in on the 
 sea, built with on the land, carved by Donatello, painted 
 by Era Angelico." 
 
 So then we remember that when we take a journey 
 we are traveling in trees, for our cars are made from 
 them as well as our big ocean steamers. 
 
 The little Indian boy felt safe and happy in his birch- 
 bark canoe, and the little American boy feels safe 
 and happy as he crosses the wide, wide sea in the big 
 
 114 
 
THE GHOST TREK 
 
 steamer, which is really a collection of many kinds of 
 
 trees. 
 
 "There s not a ship that sails the ocean, 
 But every climate, every soil, 
 Must bring its tribute, great or small, 
 And help to build the wooden wall." 
 
 Then let us go a-hunting in our own houses, our 
 schools, our churches, our travels, and it will be a tree- 
 hunt. Let us hnd all the trees we can and see how they 
 look without their green leaves and roots, and let us re 
 member what Oliver Wendell Holmes says of them: 
 
 "Trees .... outgrow us and outlive us, but stand 
 helpless poor things! while Nature dresses and un 
 dresses them, like so many full-sized, but under-witted 
 children." 
 
 Some day we may have the great pleasure of plant 
 ing a tree. It is a wonderful thing to plant a tree, for 
 it is a living thing and will grow and grow. Birds will 
 make their homes in it, cattle and men will seek its 
 shade, and its fruit, if it have such, will become nourish 
 ment for men and beasts. The bees at least will seek 
 its blossoms, and the winds will make a harp of it, 
 and, according to the shape of the leaves of the tree, 
 so will the winds song be; and some day it may give 
 its life for the sake of a child s little bed, or a great 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 ship, a home, or a big root or branch for a fire bright 
 ening and warming up the dark, cold days of winter. 
 
 " Who planted this old apple-tree? 
 The children of that distant day 
 Thus to some aged man shall say; 
 And gazing on its mossy stem, 
 The gray-haired man shall answer them: 
 * A poet of the land was he, 
 Born in the rude but good old times; 
 Tis said he made some quaint old rhymes 
 On planting the apple-tree. " 
 
 116 
 

 
 Thanksgiving Day 
 
AT CHRISTMAS PLAY AND MAKE GOOD CHEER 
 FOR CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A YEAR" 
 
The Christmas Tree 
 
 
 Lit - tie green tree, How I^T.. l ove thee, As 
 
 you 
 
 % 
 
 ~%^iEE 
 
 W * 
 grow in a tub in the hall 
 
 
 With your wide spread- ing 
 
 
 E ^FgE ip | 
 
 * * v~v -yr~^~f s -^ = ^ =i r- 
 
 branch-es and play-things and can - dies, And the bless - ed Star shin- 
 
 ing oer 
 
 
 & 
 
 all 
 
 
 Lit - tie green tree, How much I love 
 
 thee - I love thee the best of them all. 
 
THE CHRISTMAS TRKK 
 
 Little Green Tree, 
 
 How much I love thee, 
 
 As you grow in a tub in the hall, 
 
 With your wide-spreading branches, 
 
 And playthings and candles, 
 
 And the blessed Star shining o er all. 
 
 Little Green Tree, 
 
 How much I love thee, 
 I love thee the best of them all. 
 
THE CHRISTMAS-TREE 
 
 December 
 
 "Come, ye children, blithe and merry, 
 This one Child your model make; 
 Christmas holly, leaf and berry, 
 All be prized for His dear sake." 
 
 ARCHER CURXEY 
 
 The Christmas-tree does not grow in the forest or in 
 the garden. 
 
 In Germany, the land of toys and Santa Glaus, lives 
 the Christmas-tree, and from that land it has traveled 
 around the world, but not in the pockets or baggage 
 of the Germans. It has been carried over the seas to far 
 away lands in their hearts, and the Christmas-tree is big, 
 and beautiful, and gay, because we love it, and not be 
 cause of the size of the tree. 
 
 Christmas-trees are made from the evergreen family, 
 but that does not mean that they have all to be of the 
 same kind; some are firs, others yews, and still others 
 are balsam. 
 
 The beauty of the tree depends upon the amount of 
 love that grows on it. We place a star on the topmost 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 branch in memory of the Star of Bethlehem; the candles 
 are the blossoms and the gifts are the fruit of this most 
 beloved of trees. This tree has no roots, does not grow, 
 and lasts only a few days, for every Christmas a new 
 tree is necessary. 
 
 Still, though it is not a real tree, it belongs to a tree 
 family, and the name of the family is tradition or the 
 story-tree. The trees in this family do not grow, but 
 there are new ones constantly being added, so, as the 
 years go by, there is a little forest of story-trees collect 
 ing in men s hearts. 
 
 Only after a tree has ceased to be a real tree can it 
 become a tree of tradition and live in our hearts. When 
 all out-of-doors is bleak and bare, then, instead of the 
 rose-tree or the nut-tree, it is the Christmas-tree we 
 dance around. Or perhaps we sit under the branches of 
 the story-trees and listen to their tales. 
 
 Among these trees of tradition is a cherry-tree, and it 
 was placed in this orchard by George Washington, when 
 he was a little boy. This is the tree he cut down with 
 his little hatchet, and when his father asked him if he did 
 it, little George would not, and could not tell a lie, but 
 said yes, he had cut it down. This we call the tree of 
 truth growing in the forest of tradition. 
 
 The tree in which the Swiss Family Robinson made 
 their home we shall call the family tree. 
 
 124 
 
THE CHRISTMAS TREE 
 
 The tree of peace is the olive. This is the tirst tree 
 mentioned in the Bible after the flood. A dove brought 
 a branch of it to Noah as he stood waiting in the ark. 
 
 The tree of victory is the palm. Greeks and Hebrews 
 used its branches as the symbols of victory, and we, to 
 day, use it as the symbol of victory at Easter time in our 
 churches. 
 
 The mythological apple-trees the apple of discord, 
 and of perpetual youth belong to the forest of tradi 
 tion, and to this family belongs another mythological 
 tree, the laurel. According to the story-loving Greeks, 
 this tree was once the daughter of a river-god whom 
 the sun changed into the laurel. 
 
 In this forest of tradition grows also a tree called the 
 tree of knowledge. In size and in beauty it is the most 
 wonderful of them all. This wonderful tree grew first in 
 the fair garden of Eden, and up in the far north country 
 grew another tree something like it, called Igdrasil, the 
 great ash-tree of time. This tree, it is said, will not 
 wither until the last battle shall have been fought, 
 when life, time and the world shall all have passed away. 
 An eagle sits on the topmost branch and sings a strange 
 song of the making and destroying of things. 
 
 There are two other trees in this mythological family 
 that we all know very well indeed: the first is that 
 
 -5 
 
THE SONGS OF THE TREES 
 
 rapid-growing bean-stalk that Jack planted and climbed; 
 and the other is the lovely rock-a-bye tree. 
 
 " Rock-a-bye baby 
 On the tree-top, 
 When the winds blow 
 The cradle will rock 
 When the bough bends 
 The cradle will fall 
 Down tumbles baby, cradle, and all." 
 
" Winter is Summer s heir 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 
 DEC H 1976 
 ,*"> 
 
 
 LD 21-100m-9, 48(B399sl6)476 
 
C UtRKELEY LIBRARIES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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