BIRDS AND BEIGHT LEAVES 



AFTER the red maple trees and the yellow birches 

 are mostly bare, and the greater part of the sugar 

 groves have passed the zenith of their brilliancy, 

 then the poplars come to the rescue. The hills are 

 all at once bright again with a second crop of 

 color, an aftermath of splendid sun-bright yellow. 

 I knew nothing about this beforehand, and am 

 delighted over the discovery. From my Franconia 

 window I am looking at as pretty an autumnal 

 wood as any man need wish to see, and it is a 

 wood the seasonable glories of which were ended, 

 I thought, more than a week ago. As I look at 

 it I feel sorry for my last week's companion, who 

 went home too soon. Since his departure the 

 days have been outdoing one another in the soft- 

 ness of their airs and the beauty of their lights. 

 Mother Earth has been in her most amiable 

 mood. Nothing is too good for her children. I 

 have never seen fairer weather ; though some, 

 I dare say, might criticise it as a few degrees too 

 warm. It is hard, I admit, for a walker to keep 

 a coat on his back, far along as the season is get- 

 ting, when the sun wrestles with him for it. 



