June! And the fields all basking in the heat!
June! With its flowers and blossoms sweet!
Cloud ships above, their shadows sail below;
And streams kiss banks where willows grow.

Where willows grow and stately poplars stand
I walk and listen to the music bland –
The ripple of the river, the wind’s croon,
That so remind me of another June.

A June when I was full of sanguine hopes
That nerved me to attempt the rugged slopes
That rose ahead, and every obstacle
Standing between me and ambition’s hill.

Thank God for the dear face and sweeter smile
That nerved me most, and shortened every mile.
Still high above me towers ambition’s hill;
Yet glad am I – my love is with me still.

When May assembles butterflies and bees
Round April-ornamented apple trees,
And when I gaze on orchards blossom-decked,
I pause in my lone wand’rings to reflect
On one old orchard.  To another spring
Back in the past my truant thoughts take wing;
And side by side with trusty friends I stray
Through an old garden-orchard for away.

The road of life has many ups and downs;
And Fortune for us all has smiles and frowns;
Upon Life’s road we meet many a friend,
And part with many.  What is round the bend,
Ahead of us, we neither see nor know,
No wonder that our thoughts incline to go
Oftener backwards as we further stray
From childhood’s garden-orchard far away.

These lovely blossoms on the apple trees,
These singing birds, these flowers, these flying bees,
This music of the mild winds passing by,
These things, all these will pass away and die,
And yet each year while I survive to see
The blossom smiling on the apple tree,
Back to the past, back to the past I’ll stray
To one old garden-orchard far away.