From the unseen flowers below,
Like the savor of virtuous deeds,
Of deeds done long ago.

--Mrs. Southey.

Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious,
and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair:
and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

--John 12. 3.

My Father, I pray that it may be mine to have the recollection of
happy deeds, and not the memory of unkept promises. Help me to
remember that one act is worth a thousand intentions, and that memory
is the storehouse that supplies old age. Make me careful of my memory,
that it may not be burdened. Amen.

MAY

I cannot see what flowers are at my feet,
Nor what soft incense hangs upon the boughs,
But, in the embalmed darkness, guess each sweet
Wherewith the seasonable month endows
The grass, the thicket, and the fruit tree wild;
White hawthorn, and the pastoral eglantine;
Fast-fading violets covered up in leaves;
And mid-May's wildest child,
The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,
The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves.

--John Keats.

Such a starved bank of moss
Till that May morn,
Blue ran the flash across:
Violets were born.

--Robert Browning.

MAY FIRST

Arbor Day.

Joseph Addison born 1672.

Arthur, Duke of Wellington, born 1769.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend,
experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope
your guardian genius.

--Joseph Addison.

He who plants a tree, he plants love;
Tents of coolness spreading out above
Wayfarers, he may not live to see.
Gifts that grow are best;
Hands that bless are blest;
Plant-life does the rest!
Heaven and earth help him who plants a tree,
And his work his own reward shall be.

--Lucy Larcom.

And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water,
That bringeth forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also doth not wither;
And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

--Psalm 1. 3.

My Creator, give me joyful eyes for joyful nature. May I be alive to
the gentle influences of a May day which bring new experiences to all
who may receive them: and may I serve thee by unfolding to others the
love of truth, the love of good, and the love of beauty. Amen.

MAY SECO