Buchanan County bulletin and guardian., 1867-08-02
From :. Our Young Folks, rr April.
THE STORY OF An APPLE TREE.

Iu An orchard old and shady,
Once little tree was born.
very slow at first its growth was,
Scarcely IA. Ter than the corn.
Bat &. length the chan ging sea sons,
Moistenei earth and sunny sky
.,ouri.hed so the growing sspling.
That il brsnched out broad and high.
One gray morning in the spring time,
Little bsds green, pink and white,
From the tender twiss out.tretching, =.
Softly opened 70 the light.
Two or three warm days Of sunshine,
Two or three baptizing showers,
And the buds burst forth in blossoms
Fair and sweet as summer flowers.
Each white blossom. rosy tinted,
Sat within a cup Of green,
Rising whence like fairy torches,
Golden s.anens stood between.
Mid the petals madly plunging,
With a fierce and noisy glee,
Eager for the boarded honey,
Buszed all day the toiling bee.
Girls and boys bent down the branches
Passing in the morning cool
Taking bosegays thence to cheer them
Through the heightened hours of school
On the boughs the white hen roasted,
There the red tailed cock was seen,
With their canopies above them,
Like . monarch and his queen.
Breezes came and kissed the blossoms,
Pleased their playseliow to be;
But, at last, too rudely sportive,
Shook them, tore them from the tree.
Falling thus all widely scattered.
There a carpet soft they made
Heaps on heaps Of velvet pedals
Woven in with light and shade
Still the sturdy cups that held them
Kept their places the stem,
And within their claspirg bosom
Bore they each precious gem.
Pushing upward warm and eager,
Now scarce larger than pea,
strove young apples, hard and bitter
Ripened in the sun to be.
Hard and hairy will such atoms
Ever reach to size and strength
Will the apple-ro robe Of beauty
Wrap their meagre forms At length,
All the days Of June delightful,
When the damask roses grew,
Mid thick leaves concealed the apples
Silently were growing too.
And the robin red-breast saw them
As she sat within her nest,
Patient, motionlese. and watchfal,
81 -
Larger. larger. all through July
Robin saw them but before
August came. cam forth her young ones,
And she watched the fruit no more.
Robin said, :. o, course mv children
! must nourish yet I'm laath
To abandon those young apple.,-
Hope 1t viii not stop their growth
All the apples laughed to hear her:
Larger grew they every day,
Swelling in the glow Of summer,
Eipening in the noentide ray
Like the streaks upon the tulip,
Purple CLEANS across them spread,
Or they yel.owed in the sunlight,
Or they blu.hei a rosy red.
Then. oppressed with their rich burden,
Thus perfected. ripe and round.
Every bending branch. compliant.
Dropped its fruit upon the ground.
And the people at the farm house.
When October DAYS had come,
Joyful. brought and filed their baskets
Bore the fragrant apples home.
Now the tree her look so lively,
Look 60 fresh. had ceased to wear;
Bird and bee had left her-only
Robins empty ncst was there.
Hour by hour the leaves were dropping,
And among the beughs forlorn.
Autumn winds came ighing, sobbing,
Till the last brown leaf was gone
White-winged hen and kingiy rooster
Soon the falling tree .9rsook-
In the barn, on beam and rafter.
More at ease their slum Der took
9ravely stood the tree and cheery.
Though so gray and leafess grown;
Hopeful still, but very neiy,-
Even the empty nest blown down.
When the winter snow-drifts covered
All the landscape high and low.
Tirpets white she wra ped sbout her,
Graceful tippe,s Of the snow.
March, And now the frozen rain-drops
Glistering hung from all their stems,
And she stood in jewels blazing.
Decked from top to toe in gems.
Then. at iast, with soft embraces
Spring returned. Without pursuit
Came young buds, came the blossom,
Came the foliage. came the fruit
Bravely should We meet our troubles,
Patient whatsoeer they bring,
For the dear God sends the winter
Only to restore the spring.
Mr. Anna n TsYs