Suggestive programs for special day exercises/Arbor Day/Which Tree is Best

by Jason Elmer Hammond

WHICH TREE IS BEST.

Which is the best of all the trees?
Answer me, children all, if you please.
That for a hundred years has stood,
The graceful elm or the stately ash,
Or the aspen, whose leaflets shimmer and flash?

Is it the solemn and gloomy pine,
With its million needles so sharp and fine?
Ah no! The tree that I love best,
It buds and blossoms not with the rest;
No summer sun on its fruit has smiled,
But the ice and snow are around it piled;
But still it will bloom and bear fruit for me—
My winter bloomer! My Christmas tree!

—Youths’ Companion.