Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how: 
    Everything is happy now,
      Everything is upward striving;
    ’Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
    As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,—­
      ’Tis the natural way of living.

    —­LOWELL:  Sir Launfal.

=11.  VOTING FOR THE TREE OR FLOWER WHICH SHALL BE THE EMBLEM OF THE SCHOOL FOR THE YEAR.=

Suggestions.—­If this programme should prove too long, parts of it may readily be omitted.  If the day be a fine one, it might be well to transfer the address and, perhaps, the readings to the third part of the programme at the tree.

In order to facilitate the voting of the tree or flower and have it occupy but little time, it would be well to have a blackboard facing the pupils during the exercises with a few drawings of trees and flowers, each with a characteristic attribute printed beneath it.  The voting may then be expeditiously performed by pointing to the drawings.

In some States there is a provision for the children to vote on Arbor Day for a favorite flower, which shall be considered the State flower.  In others a State tree may be selected by vote of the children.  In such cases this is the time for the selection.

=12.  RECITATION.=

THE AMERICAN FLAG.

    When Freedom from her mountain height
      Unfurled her standard to the air,
    She tore the azure robe of night
      And set the stars of glory there;
    She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
    The milky baldric of the skies,
    And striped its pure celestial white
    With streakings of the morning light;
    Then from his mansion in the sun
    She called her eagle bearer down,
    And gave into his mighty hand
    The symbol of her chosen land.

    —­J.R.  DRAKE.

     [To be recited and followed immediately by the song “Star
     Spangled Banner.”]

=13.  SONG.=

STAR SPANGLED BANNER.

FRANCIS KEY.

[Illustration:  Music notation]

    1.  Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
       What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming? 
       Whose broad stripes and bright stars thro’ the perilous fight
       O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming,
       And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air
       Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there;
       Oh, say does the star-spangled banner still wave
       O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?

    2.  On the shore dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
       Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
       What is that, which the breeze o’er the lowering steep,
       As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses! 
       Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
       In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
       ’Tis the star-spangled banner, Oh, long may it wave
       O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!