A COMPOSITE FAMILY 255 



made a backward gesture toward the hillside bury- 

 ing-place a quarter of a mile beyond, with its 

 uneven slate slabs, which I had never before noticed 

 was plainly visible from his home. 



We had gravitated toward the shade behind the 

 cabin where he had been sitting. He disappeared 

 for a moment and brought out a low, straight - 

 backed chair a woman's sewing chair, I surmised 

 which he placed facing the river, and again 

 seated himself on the chopping-block. 



Two or three minutes passed, which seemed 

 like half an hour. A kingfisher flew over, some 

 jays argued noisily below in the dense arbor of 

 river grapes, and the distant commotion among a 

 flock of crows that made their roost from late 

 Summer onward in the Cedar woods, suggested 

 that an owl had impolitely invaded their territory 

 and was provoking discord. 



Still Time o' Year sat silent. For occupation 

 I counted the various Asters that made a fringe 

 along the uneven garden fence. There were five 

 kinds, but growing in such luxuriance as to ap- 

 pear forty. The tallest of the plants, a sturdy 

 bush, in fact, was the common Blue Wood Aster, 

 with large, heart-shaped leaves and violet-blue 

 flowers; with it mingled the Early Purple, Violet 



