THE FIR TREE
O singing Wind
Searching field and wood,
Cans’t thou find
Aught that’s sweet or good—
Flowers, to kiss awake,
Or dewy grass, to shake,
Or feathered seed
Aloft to speed?
Replies the wind:
“I cannot find
Flowers, to kiss awake,
Or dewy grass to shake,
Or feathered seed
Aloft to speed;
Yet I meet
Something sweet,
When the scented fir,—
Balsam-breathing fir—
In my flight I stir.”
Edith M. Thomas.
WHY BRUIN HAS A STUMPY TAIL
(Norwegian Legend)
Once upon a time a sly fox lived in a deep forest which bordered a river. One fine winter day he was lying in the sun near a brush heap with his eyes closed, and he was thinking: “It has been several days since I had a dainty supper. How I should enjoy a fine large fish this evening. I’ll slip over to the edge of the forest and watch the fishermen as they go home with their day’s catch. Perhaps good luck will do something for me.”