Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Lizette WoodworthReese

1257 A Holiday

ALONG the pastoral ways I go,

To get the healing of the trees,

The ghostly news the hedges know;

To hive me honey like the bees,

Against the time of snow.

The common hawthorn that I see,

Beside the sunken wall astir,

Or any other blossoming tree,

Is each God’s fair white gospeller,

His book upon the knee.

A gust-broken bough; a pilfered nest;

Rumors of orchard or of bin;

The thrifty things of east and west,—

The countryside becomes my Inn,

And I its happy guest.