A

THE DANDELION.

RECITATION accompanied with music for nine little girls, four girls each to recite a long paragraph, the short paragraphs to be recited in concert by the other five girls.

All enter and sing first stanza of Gay Little Dandelion, from "The Vineyard of Song."

FIRST GIRL RECITES:

There's a dandy little fellow,

Who dresses all in yellow,

In yellow with an overcoat of green;
With his hair all crisp and curly,
In the spring-time bright and early,

Tripping o'er the meadow he is seen.

SECOND GIRL:

Through all the bright June weather,
Like a jolly little tramp,

He wanders o'er the hillside, down the road;
Around his yellow feather

The gypsy fire-flies camp;

His companions are the woodlark and the toad.

FIVE GIRLS RECITE IN CONCERT:

Spick and spandy, little dandy;

Golden dancer in the dell!

Green and yellow, happy fellow,

All the children love him well.

(ALL SING SECOND STANZA OF GAY LITTLE DANDELION.)

THIRD GIRL:

But at last this little fellow,

Doffs his dandy coat of yellow,

And very feebly totters o'er the green;

For he very old is growing,

And with hair all white and flowing,

Nodding in the sunlight he is seen.

FOURTH GIRL:

The little winds of morning,

Come flying through the grass,

And clap their hands around him in their glee;
They shake him without warning -

His wig falls off, alas!

A little bald-head dandy now is he.

FIVE GIRLS RECITE IN CONCERT:
O poor dandy! once so spandy,
Golden dancer on the lea!

Older growing, white hair flowing,

Bald-head dandy now is he.

(ALL SING THIRD STANZA OF GAY LITTLE DANDELION.)

LIEKAR

ASTOR. LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

A

THE OAK AND THE MISTLETOE SEED.

SEED of the beautiful mistletoe was separated from its parent. It went forth in search of a home wherein it might receive protection and care. "Perhaps," said the little seed to itself, " I may one day be a large and beautiful plant like that from which I have sprung."

"Surely

It knew by instinct that the earth, in whose bosom the mighty forest trees buried their spreading roots, would have no welcome for a seed of mistletoe; that it must seek elsewhere the rest and nourishment it so desired. there must be room for me in the world!" the wandering seed exclaimed. Seeing a stately elm it thought, "Here is a tree that must be as generous as he is stately, here shall be my home." But the elm was not generous. He scorned the humble petition of the seed, and said there was not a corner in his branches for a beggar. In vain did the seed plead its great need of help; the elm was as hard as a stone, and cared not at all for the tiny creature's sorrow.

A beech near by was even more narrow-minded than the elm, and fairly drove the seed away with the angry question: "Why should I afford a resting place to vagrant shrubs of your kind?" And the poor weary wanderer began to think that it would be as well to die at once as to die at the end of a long and fruitless pursuit.

An oak in the forest, to whom the seed next appealed, listened to the sorrowing voice of the wanderer, and was more merciful than the elm or the beech had been. Satisfied at last, the little seed found rest in the arms of the mighty oak. Before long a delicate green leaf appeared, and then another and another; and in time a beautiful shrub grew upon the great forest tree.

When the summer had passed, the winds of autumn came moaning through the woods, and the leaves fell in showers. The stately elm lost its beautiful foliage, the beech stood bare and shivering in the blast, and even the hospitable oak saw his splendid drapery of green change and fall. And soon the winter's ice and snow made the forest desolate. Yet was the oak grand and attractive still. The mistletoe covered the broad bosom of the tree, and was indeed life in the midst of death. Strong and ever green, the winter could not rob it of its beauty or its strength. Its waxen berries, rivaling the snow in whiteness, seemed to the beech and elm like so many mocking eyes turned upon them. But to the venerable oak they were like rare and precious jewels.

One fine day in winter, the oak made this speech to a merry little group who stood admiring the mistletoe: "When I received a tiny straying seed and gave it my protection, do you suppose that I knew what would follow? If I had stood in the forest destitute of leaves as my fellow-trees are, would you have gathered around to admire me?"

"I know that the mistletoe with its white berries attracted your eyes, yet am I not proud to bear that shrub in my arms and to call it my foster-child? Kindness enriches both the giver and the receiver. In my long, long life I have learned many lessons, but this is the best of all: be kind for the very sake of kindness, and you will have your reward."

I

Á SUMMER LONGING.

MUST away to wooded hills and vales,

Where broad, slow streams flow cool and silently,

And idle barges flap their listless sails.

For me the summer sunset glows and pales,
And green fields wait for me.

I long for shadowy forests, where the birds.
Twitter and chirp at noon from every tree;
I long for blossomed leaves and lowing herds;
And Nature's voices say in mystic woods,

"The green fields wait for thee."

I dream of uplands, where the primrose shines
And waves her yellow lamps above the lea;
Of tangled copses, swung with trailing vines;
Of open vistas, skirted with tall pines,

Where green fields wait for me.

I think of long, sweet afternoons, when I
May lie and listen to the distant sea,
Or hear the breezes in the reeds that sigh,
Or insect voices chirping shrill and dry,
In fields that wait for me.