NUTTY AUTUMN. 151 



the thorn-bush looks as perfect as if just made, instead 

 of having been left long long since the young birds 

 have flocked into the stubbles. On the briar which 

 holds the jacket the canker rose, which was green in 

 summer, is now rosy. No such nuts as those captured 

 with cunning search from the bough in the tinted 

 sunlight and under the changing leaf. 



The autumn itself is nutty, brown, hard, frosty, and 

 sweet. Nuts are hard, frosts are hard ; but the one 

 is sweet, and the other braces the strong. Exercise 

 often wearies in the spring, and in the summer heats 

 is scarcely to be faced ; but in autumn, to those who 

 are well, every step is bracing and hardens the frame, 

 as the sap is hardening in the trees. 



