OCTOBER. oor- 



groundwork of drifted snow. By this vapor, nearly mo- 

 tionless at sunrise, we may trace the winding course of 

 ^le smaU nvers far along through the distant prospect. 

 But the sun quickly dissipates this ileecy cloud. As the 

 winds float It slowly and gracefully over the plains it 

 melts into transparency ; and ere the sun has gained ten 

 degrees in his oi^it, the last feathery fragment has van- 

 ished and left him in the clear blue firmament without 

 one shadow to tarnish his glory 



October is the most brillfant of the months, unsurpassed 

 m the clearness of its skies and in the wonderful variety 

 of tints that are sprinkled over all vegetation. He wlio 

 has an eye for beautiful colors must ever admire the scen- 

 ery of this last month of foliage and flowers. As Nature 

 loses the delicacy of her charms, she is more lavish of the 

 gaucly decorations with which she embroiders her apparel 

 While she appears before us in her living attire, from 

 spring to autumn she is constantly changing her vesture 

 with each passing month. The flowers that s^Me the 

 green turf or wreathe themselves upon the trees and 

 vines, and the herbage with all its various sliades of ver- 

 dure, constitute, with their successive changes, her mvincr 

 and summer adornment ; but ere the fall of the leaf she 

 mal^s herself garlands of the ripened foliage, and crowns 

 the brows of her mountains and the bosoms of her ^roves 

 with the most beautiful array. " 



Though tlie present is a melancholy time of the year 

 -we are preserved from cheerless reflections by the bright- 

 ness of the sunshine and the interminable beauty of\he 

 landscape. The sky in clear weather is of the deepest 

 blue ; and the ocean and the lakes, slightly ruffled by the 



lar depth of coloring, unwitnessed when their surface is 

 calm. Diverted by the unusual charms of Nature, while 

 we look with a mournful heart upon the graves of the 



