Autumn 



mountain -ash forlornly decorating a cor- 

 ner of some over-civilized country-place, 

 languishing like a handsome young bar- 

 barian in captivity, I remember how that 

 same road brought one to the forest which 

 crowned the mountain's top — to a dimly 

 lighted path which led through mossy 

 fern-beds, till it reached a sudden open- 

 ing, where two great hemlocks made a 

 frame, and a dark, distant mountain 

 formed a background for the feathery foli- 

 age and scarlet clusters of a superbly vig- 

 orous specimen of this beautiful tree. 



If we leave the mountains and visit once 

 more the salt meadows we notice a multi- 

 tude of erect narrow-leaved stems, which 

 toward their summits are studded with 

 soft, rose-purple flowerheads. This is the 

 blazing star, one of the latest blooming 

 and most beautiful of the Composites. 



Just back of the beach the gray sand- 

 hills are warm with the slender branches 

 and little rose-colored flowers of the sand 

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