AT FALL 



movement : all at once they will run an even race in 

 companies of scores and hundreds across the lawns, 

 and stop as suddenly ; another time and each leaf 

 has its own revelry, scurrying through the air and 

 over the earth, flinging itself flat on walls and 

 window-panes, scraping and crackling along hard 

 places, driving its way into obscurest nooks and 

 corners, where it wedges itself tight for months to 

 come. But this is in October : the unchaining of 

 the leaves for their autumn rush and dance is not yet. 

 The typical September contribution to autumn has 

 little leaf-play ; the twirl through a still air of the 

 seed-cases of lime tree and sycamore is more its 

 feature. Its day, when perfect, has a certain 

 exquisite mingling of sun and wind, just the right 

 amount of both to produce an effect soft and 

 mellow. 



There is a suggestion of summer about the early 

 afternoon. The mighty bowl of blue and grey 

 overhead is flecked with twittering swallows ; the 

 pencilled outline of the distant hills might be a full 

 summer one ; red admiral butterflies, splendid in 

 caparison as any of July, sail among the Michaelmas 

 daisies. But it is all done before sundown ; there is 

 a pinch in the air late each afternoon. 



A Badger's Haunt 



The badger's holt is in the densest part of the 

 hanging wood. Here the stoles of cornel tree and 



221 



