332 AFTERMATH 



son were ripening side by side with the threadlike 

 petals of the newly -opened blossoms that wrote its 

 name. 



"Witch Hazel!" she exclaimed. "Who would 

 have dreamed that there was miles of it here, or 

 that these spidery flowers could light up the whole 

 landscape and take the bleakness from it ! I 've 

 often had bunches of it sent me, and I liked the 

 flowers for their oddity, but out here it is a wholly 

 different thing. Why don't people come to see it 

 as they go to hunt for Arbutus or Pussy Willows 

 in Spring ? It 's quite worth while." 



"Why, indeed?" I echoed in thought. "Be- 

 cause, I suppose, the outing mood is too often for- 

 saken with other Summer-day occupations, and so 

 in Autumn the flower in the hand is better known 

 than the flower in the landscape. Very few people 

 have any idea of what, if anything, awaits them on 

 the border of November woods." 



A half mile of Witch Hazel glow, and then the 

 wood road opened on a level turnpike, where the 

 matted down of seeded Goldenrods and other com- 

 posites blew along the ground in clouds, showing 

 that in every way they are a conquering race, to be 

 watched and kept well within bounds. 



Then Flower Hat began to laugh at Nell, 



