25O A COMPOSITE FAMILY 



after crossing the hills and leaving the more fre- 

 quented roads behind, I let the reins hang loose, so 

 that Nell might choose the path herself, as any 

 one of the three roads that diverged from the hill 

 below the Lilac House led to an equally uncertain 

 hunting ground. 



Already the Goldenrods were bright in field and 

 swamp, crowding close to the wheel - tracks and 

 climbing to the tops of gravel banks where little 

 else could find footing. The landscape from middle 

 August to middle September is so identical as to 

 make one wish that the conventional division of 

 the seasons followed the natural law, and that Sum- 

 mer might have all the golden days that really be- 

 long to her until the autumnal equinox is reached, 

 September twenty-first. 



Almost all the common Goldenrods were repre- 

 sented, either in the wayside crowd or in the more 

 exclusive groups that peeped out from the woods, 

 or carried gleams of sunlight along the swamp 

 edges to cheer the stately somberness of Cat -tail 

 Flags. 



The Silver Rod, with its leafy wand of whitish 

 blossoms, mingled with the Blue -stemmed Golden - 

 rod, which bears its flowers in little bunches in the 

 leaf axils, on the partly-shaded banks of the upper 



