228 FROM A MIDDLESEX GARDEN 



stir : behold the hover-flies poised fantastically above the 

 great discs of the sunflowers, or alighting gracefully on the 

 glittering coreopsis that trembles on its thread-like stem ; 

 behold the golden-banded bees flying with all speed from 

 flower to flower, paying, as it were, their farewell visits. 

 The meadow trees are just touched with Autumn's first 

 change, and which will anon be resplendent with many 

 glowing colours ; those also of the orchard are fast relin- 

 quishing their emerald brightness, and in the breeze are 

 displaying their hidden store of fruit. Throughout the day 

 a thousand messengers are abroad upon the air which Summer 

 sends out to tell of her departure grey silk-like globes of 

 thistle-down, birds on hastening wing, falling leaf, droning 

 insect, and racing clouds, and the like, heard and seen from 

 misty morn till dewy dusk. Here and there from a 

 wayside garden the smoke from burning weeds and withered 

 stems ascends, and nothing speaks to us more plainly of 

 Autumn than the beard of flame arising from the centre 

 of a heap of ruined Summer flowers. Swallows no longer 

 are flying singly, but gather in companies and whirl above 

 the trees till far into the dusk, when all the world is lost to 

 sight, hidden in the grey folds of Autumn mist until the 

 birth of brightening morn. 



