How the Birds Came

by: Arthur Guiterman (1871-1943)

(AN INDIAN LEGEND)

All summer long the forest trees

Had raised their leaves for dew and breeze;

But colder grew the autumn sun

And, slowly fading, one by one

The leaves came drifting down the air

Till soon the boughs would all be bare.

What sadness comes with fall of leaf!

The great trees bent their heads in grief

And raised their knotted arms to call

In prayer on Him Who made them all:

"O Gitche Manitou above,

Shall all be lost of these we love?"

In thunder roll and lightning flame

The Mighty Spirit's answer came:

"Behold, my forest, tempest-tossed,

How all must change, yet naught be lost!"

And while they heard the Master's words,

The drifting leaves were changed to birds!

The leaves of willow fluttered down

As Finches, tawny, green, and brown.

The red and russet leaves of oak

Became the Thrush and Robin folk.

The golden beech-leaves learned to fly

As Yellowbirds athwart the sky;

While all the maple leaves that turned

In changing hues that glowed and burned

Took wing across the wooded knolls

As Tanagers and Orioles!

So, every year when laughing Spring

Dissolves the snows, on eager wing

The birds of forest, hill, and glen

Return to know their trees again--

To build their nests, to peer and stir

Among the leaves of which they were;

And from those boughs where once they grew

They sing to Gitche Manitou.

Artist Hannah Yata

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