180 PROCESSION OF THE SEASONS 



fritillaries and angle-wings, blocked in red and 

 black above, and often variegated by odd dashes 

 and spots of burnished silver, or by peacock ej^es 

 beneath. How they crowd about the spreading 

 thistle blossoms, or on the many-flowered umbels of 

 the milkweed, and fan themselves with content at 

 their sweet lot ! As autumn approaches and the 

 leaves grow dull, the grain ripens in the meadow 

 and the pastures parch with drought, then come 

 the satyrs or meadow-browns, lazily dancing by the 

 roadside and over the thickets which sldrt the 

 fields ; in the time of goldenrods and yellow and 

 blue asters the great throng of yellow and orange 

 butterflies appear ; some of them are with us 

 throughout the season, companions of the buttercup, 

 the dandelion, and the rudbeckia ; but now they 

 swarm, flitting busily in zigzag courses over upland 

 pasture and lowland meadow, by marsh and brook, 

 in field and fen, crowding around the open flowers, 

 or dancmg in pairs in mid-air. 



