Martinmas Summer 375 



sometimes coax a number of dandelions into bloom. 

 The little blunderers will probably be overlooked, 

 for we are apt to observe the things we expect to 

 find and to miss those we are not looking for, and 

 we certainly are not looking for October dandelions. 

 There they are, however, gladdening the roadsides 

 in many places. Let us hope that they will 

 have time to set their seed and float it away to 

 pastures new on gauzy parachutes before winter 

 comes swooping down out of the North. 



Violets, too, blossom sparingly in late fall sun- 

 shine. In golden Indian-summer weather one may 

 gather them as late as Thanksgiving. Wild straw- 

 berries sometimes bloom quite luxuriantly in Sep- 

 tember or October. Here and there a willow pussy 

 thrusts its furry foolish head above the bud-scales, 

 which should have screened it till the spring, and 

 in sheltered garden spots the early-flowering 

 shrubs, especially the pyrus japonica and bridal- 

 wreath, put forth a few fall-blossoms. 



Some hardy weeds are so eager to seize upon 

 every opportunity afforded by the chances and 

 changes of our climate, that a few days of mildness 

 and sunshine, in the heart of winter, will coax them 

 into bloom. 



There is no month in the year in which one may 



