CHAPTER XVII 

 MARTINMAS SUMMER 



Has time grown sleepy at his post 

 And let the exiled summer back? 



Or is it her regretful ghost 

 Or witchcraft of the almanac? 



E. R. Sill. 



THE still, sunny fall days are the serene old age 

 of summer. In them they year seems to go back, 

 as old people sometimes do, to the memories and 

 ways of her early youth, and October and No- 

 vember sometimes behave like April, to the utter 

 confusion and ultimate destruction of the flowers. 

 For the flowers, not having " evoluted " to the use 

 of almanacs, must regulate their affairs by guess- 

 work, and when the sun shines brightly above 

 them, and the earth feels warm and moist about 

 their roots, they are grievously deceived, and mis- 

 take the Indian summer for the spring. 



So it is by no means uncommon to find spring 

 blossoms in late autumn, and this is especially apt 

 to be the case when the early fall has been rainy. 



A week or two of mild and showery weather will 



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