Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Arbor Day/What will you be

by Jason Elmer Hammond

WHAT WILL YOU BE?

Dear little tree that we plant today
What will you be when we’re old and gray?
“The savings bank of the squirrel and mouse,
For robbin and wren an apartment house,
The dressing-room of the butterfly’s ball,
The locusts and katydid’s concert hall;
The school-boy’s ladder in pleasant June,
The school-girl’s tent in the July noon.
And my leaves shall whisper them merrily
A tale of the children who planted me.”