The fruitage of this apple-tree,
  Winds and our flag of stripe and star
  Shall bear to coasts that lie afar,
  Where men shall wonder at the view,
  And ask in what fair groves they grew;
    And sojourners beyond the sea
  Shall think of childhood’s careless day,
  And long, long hours of summer play,
    In the shade of the apple-tree.

[Illustration]

    Each year shall give this apple-tree
  A broader flush of roseate bloom,
  A deeper maze of verdurous gloom,
  And loosen, when the frost-clouds lower,
  The crisp brown leaves in thicker shower. 
    The years shall come and pass, but we
  Shall hear no longer, where we lie,
  The summer’s songs, the autumn’s sigh,
    In the boughs of the apple-tree.

    And time shall waste this apple-tree. 
  Oh, when its aged branches throw
  Thin shadows on the ground below,
  Shall fraud and force and iron will
  Oppress the weak and helpless still? 
    What shall the tasks of mercy be,
  Amid the toils, the strifes, the tears
  Of those who live when length of years
    Is wasting this little apple-tree?

    “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.”

[Illustration]

=April Fools’ Day=

April 1

So old is the custom of playing amiable and harmless tricks upon the first of April that its origin is not definitely known.  It is not a holiday and not worthy to be one, but it should be good for our sense of humor and that is one of the best things we can have.  An April fool is sometimes called a “Fourth-month Dunce.”

=FOURTH-MONTH DUNCE=

BY H.M.M.

The curious custom of joking on the first of April, sending the ignorant or the unwary on fruitless errands, for the sake of making them feel foolish and having a laugh at them, prevails very widely in the world.  And whether you call the victim a “Fourth-month Dunce,” an “April fool,” an “April fish” (as in France), or an “April gowk” (as in Scotland), the object, to deceive him and laugh at him, is everywhere the same.

The custom has been traced back for ages; all through Europe, as far back as the records go.  The “Feast of Fools” is mentioned as celebrated by the ancient Romans.  In Asia the Hindoos have a festival, ending on the 31st of March, called the “Huli festival,” in which they play the same sort of first of April pranks—­translated into Hindoo,—­laughing at the victim, and making him a “Huli fool.”  It goes back to Persia, where it is supposed to have had a beginning, in very ancient times, in the celebration of spring, when their New Year begins.