NUMBER XXI 



AUTUMN 



THERE is aptness in speaking of autumn as 

 " the fall," for life then begins to go on the 

 down-grade. It is the ebb-tide of the year. And 

 just as it is the sun that quickens the seeds, raises 

 the sap, unpacks the buds, and opens the flowers, 

 and our hearts as well, in spring, so it is the lack of 

 sun that now casts a spell upon life, putting the 

 fires out and making us melancholy in the autumn. 

 It is the year's curfew and its vespers. When the 

 chimes cease we know the silence for winter. 



Autumn a Time of Preparation 



Even the careless, who pause only for a moment 

 to listen to the curfew of the year, must perceive the 

 sadness of the notes. They are heard in the calls 

 of the birds passing south who " wail their way from 

 cloud to cloud," in the rustle of the falling leaves, 

 and in the piping of a mournful wind which bears 

 both birds and leaves away. Autumn is a time of 

 withering and leave-taking. 



But a more careful listener will hear very different 

 notes, which tell of the continuance of life in spite 

 of death, of preparation for the future amid the 



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