se airy, milk-white branches in the spring?
As they glisten in the light
Of a day divinely bright
When to see them is delight, in the spring.

Have you seen the sunbeams glancing in the spring, in the spring?
Glancing on her leaflets glossy in the spring?
When the wind sets them in motion,
Like the ripples on the ocean,
And they stir our fond devotion, in the spring.

If you have not, then you know not, in the spring, in the spring,
Half the beauty of the birches in the spring.
Past their tops of silver sheen
In the distance far are seen
Blue-tinged hills in living green, in the spring.

--_After Wm. Martin._

[Illustration: NOTICE THE SPREADING BRANCHES OF THIS TREE.]

BLUE.

BY CHARLES DEGARMO.

There's plentiful blue in the midst of the green;
For blue are the joys that chatter and preen;
The blue bells all nod and sway with the breeze;
Blue-tinged are the hills that border the scene,
And blue birds sing low of nests in the trees.
In the land of the North
When the bird's on the wing,
Then the blue in the woods
Is a charm of the spring.

On waters of blue where soft breezes blow,
With sunshine above and shadow below,
My boat sails the bay, with naught to annoy,
For two[1] that I love sit close as we go,
And laughing blue eyes that mirror with joy.
Far away to the South,
Where the warm tropics lie,
There the blue of the sea
Is the blue of the sky.

--_From the Author's forthcoming book, "An Aesthetic View of the
World."_

[1] The Author's little granddaughters.

SUNRISE NEVER FAILS.

Upon the sadness of the sea
The sunset broods regretfully;
From the far spaces, slow
Withdraws the wistful afterglow.

So out of life the splendor dies,
So darken all the happy skies,
So gathers twilight cold and stern;
But overhead the planets burn.

And up the east another day
Shall chase the bitter dark away,
What though our eyes with tears be wet?
The sunrise never failed us yet.

The blush of dawn may yet restore
Our light and hope and joys once more.
Sad soul, take comfort, nor forget
That sunrise never failed us yet.

--_Celia Thaxter._

[Illustration: NEW WASHINGTON, CRAWFORD COUNTY, HIGH SCHOOL.]

WHO-OO-