AUTUMN 



Autumn stands to us as the period of fruit- 

 gathering, of falling leaves, of departing birds, 

 of the slow, continuous, unhurried, and un- 

 hurrying march of nature to the rest and quiet 

 of winter. 



Officially, summer lasts until the 21st of Sep- 

 tember, but the high crest of summer life is well 

 past in our northern climate before that date 

 and autumn — fall, the Anglo-Saxon word for 

 the closing year — is shadowed forth in early 

 September. 



The autumn wild flowers glow in the vary- 

 ing violet hues of the Asters, and the golden 

 yellows of the Sunflowers and Goldenrods modi- 

 fied, varied, and made more beautiful by the 

 white of Asters and of Eupatoriums. 



Many of the wild flowers of midsummer live 

 again in late autumn either as left-overs, plants 

 that have suffered from the knife or hoe of the 

 farmer, and, true to weed nature, have snatched 



3 



