THE LEAF AND I A tiny bud swelling with life About to enter this world of strife Little knowing and caring not Of its fate in life or of its lot. It emerges at last in the light of day All soft and pink and ready to play With springs soft breezes and the sunmer sun Realizing not that lifes just begun. But if it survives the frosts that come And the diseases that effect the very young, It will serve its purpose here on earth That was God's intention at its birth. But all too soon it will grow old Its chosen place will be hard to hold. It will shiver and shake in the North winds blast And will tumble from its place at last. It will be blown thither and yonder against its will By a-fickle wind that's never still. But finally it will come to rest In some fence corner or a field mouse nest. But ever how much it's blown around It becomes finally humus for the ground. From dust thou come, to dust thou returnest is just as true, With the tiny leaf as with me and you. S. D. Dellinger