Christmas Tree, The

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <p><SPAN name="TheChristmasTree"><b>The Christmas Tree.</b></SPAN></p> <p class="insthead">(Recitation for a boy to give before a Christmas tree is dismantled.)</p> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Of all the trees in the woods and fields</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>There's none like the Christmas tree;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Tho' rich and rare is the fruit he yields,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>The strangest of trees is he.</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Some drink their fill from the shower or rill;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>No cooling draught needs he;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Some bend and break when the storms awake,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>But they reach not the Christmas tree.</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>When wintry winds thro' the forests sweep,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>And snow robes the leafless limb;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>When cold and still is the ice-bound deep,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>O this is the time for him.</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Beneath the dome of the sunny home,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>He stands with all his charms;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>'Mid laugh and song from the youthful throng,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>As they gaze on his fruitful arms.</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>There's golden fruit on the Christmas tree,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>And gems for the fair and gay;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>The lettered page for the mind bears he,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>And robes for the wintry day.</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>And there are toys for the girls and boys;</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>And eyes that years bedim</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Grow strangely bright, with a youthful light,</span><br/> <span style='margin-left: 2em;'>As they pluck from the pendant limb.</span><br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />