A Fall Day of Mists 1 8 1 



clouds seemed densely dark. The gleams of 

 flickering sunlight, skimming the valleys, were 

 exquisite in effect ; and far eastward, on the 

 long range of hills from the Holyoke ridges, that 

 all the time hung mysteriously blue, right from 

 the sky there gleamed the echo of the same sun 

 light, but of other beams, like messengers from 

 the hypethral beauty. It was not a day for glow 

 ing colour, it is true, but was one of infinitely 

 subtle atmospheric effects. 



The lesser and more intimate face of earth is 

 still a manifest of the divine beauty in flower and 

 fruit, for now the berries add much to these 

 charms, and the later golden-rods, the wreath, 

 the speciosa, and some others, accompany the 

 asters in their abundance. The gentians are in 

 full excellence ; and, though yet in great rarity, 

 the magical scent of the witch hazel steals upon 

 the nostrils in the edges of the forest. Nor have 

 all the birds left us. Many of the migrants who 

 have nested to the northward are pausing here in 

 their flight to winter quarters, and having little 

 harmless orgies of their own over the seeds of such 

 plants as they have known and approved for 

 generations beyond number. In fine, it is a 

 choice autumn which opens before us. It is 

 characteristic, as every season has been this first 

 year of the new century. A sturdy winter ; a 



