What do we plant when we plant the trees? We plant the ships which will cross the seas. We plant the mast to carry the sails, We plant the planks to withstand the gales-- The keel, the keelson, and beams and knee; We plant the ship when we plant the tree. What do we plant when we plant the tree? We plant the homes for you and me. We plant the rafters, the shingles, the floors, We plant the studding, the laths, the doors, The beams, the sidings, all parts that be; We plant the home when we plant the tree. What do we plant when we plant the tree? A thousand things that we daily see. We plant the spires that outtower the crag, We plant the staff for our country's flag, We plant the shade, from the hot sun free; We plant all these when we plant the tree. ORIGIN OF THE EASTER EGG. ELANORA KINSLEY MARBLE. Now is the time of year when we feel called upon to inform our readers that the peacock does not lay the pretty colored Easter eggs. This valuable bit of information the great American humorist feels called upon to make year after year, and though we elder folk smile, and the young query, how many of us are familiar with the history of the custom of observing the closing of Lent with the egg feast? One must go back to the Persians for the first observance of the egg day. According to one of the ancient cosmogonies, all things were produced from an egg, hence called the mundane egg. This cosmogony was received in Persia, and on this account there obtained, among the people of that country, a custom of presenting each other with an egg, the symbol of a new beginning of time on every New Year's day; that is, on the day when the sun enters Aries, the Persians reckoning the beginning of the new year from that day, which occurred in March. The doctrine of the mundane egg was not confined to the limits of Persia, but was spread, together with the practice of presenting New Year's eggs, through various other countries. But the New Year was not kept on the day when the sun enters Aries, or at least it ceased, in process of time, to be so kept. In Persia itself the introduction of the Mohammedan faith brought with it the removal of New Year's day. Among the Jews the season of the ancient New Year became that of the Passover, and among the Christians the season of the Passover has become that of Easter. Among all these changes the custom of giving an egg at the sun's entrance into Aries still prevails. The egg has also continued to be held as a symbol, and the sole alteration is the prototype. At first it was said to be the beginning of time and now it is called the symbol of the resurrection. One sees, therefore, what was the real origin of the Easter egg of the Greek and Roman churches.