Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 134, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1913 — Friends. [ARTICLE]

Friends.

May I be friend to all the trees. To birds and blossoms and the bees; I’o things that creep, to things that hide Through all the teeming countryside; On terms with all the stars at night. With all the playful beams of light; InMove with leafy dales and hills, And with the laughing mountain rills; With summer skies and winter snows; With every kind of breeze that blows; The wide sea and the stretching plain; The tempest and the falling rain. If I were thus what need had I To fear Death’s solemn mystery That takes me from the world’s alarms And lays me in earth’s loving arms? —John Kendrick Bangs.