After the long, bright, summer holiday?

Not now, O children, in the sunny meadows

Ye cull the flowers or by the brooklets stray,

But in the fields of knowledge, thick with blossoms,

To gather sweets for a far future day.

Here, too, you roam a land of fairest promise,

Watered by many a stream of limpid hue,

Where weary travelers find a sweet refreshment

And garner richest stores of old and new.

We bid thee welcome to the homes that missed thee,