Mdisummer 



chard. This delusion — though even yet 

 it hardly seems that — sprang, I suppose, 

 partly from the fact that only on Sun- 

 day was one obliged to refrain from a 

 variety of enchanting pursuits which at 

 other times proved so absorbing as to 

 preclude any great sensitiveness to the 

 aspects of nature, and partly also from a 

 certain serenity in the moral atmosphere 

 which so linked itself with the visible 

 surroundings as to arouse the belief that 

 the lights and shadows of this one day 

 actually differed in character from those 

 of the other six. Still I cannot but think 

 that not only is the coarseness of habit 

 common to the later flowers suggestive of 

 a defensive attitude in view of a more or 

 less inclement season, but that their ac- 

 tual colors are less indicative of the heat 

 of summer. 



Surely no autumn field sends upward a 

 multiple reflection of the sun itself as 

 do these meadows about us. One would 



