CHAPTER XII 



A SEPTEMBER CHILL 



I FOUND that as the season waned the migra 

 tory instinct in me asserted itself as it does in 

 a bird. It was not difficult to extract content 

 ment from July and August, but with September 

 came certain vague longings and stirrings. The 

 Hotchkiss woods are no more deserted in winter 

 than in summer, and yet, with the first whiff of 

 cool air, carrying a few yellow leaves, there came 

 a restless desire to take wing. This is a charac 

 teristic of the social animal. He desires to go 



O 



with the flock, and however seductive September 

 may be to the eye, he is sure to hear far-away 

 voices calling to him ; even the rumble of trunks 

 and the fluttering of departing wings at the water 

 ing places reach him. He cannot disguise from 

 himself that the world is getting ready for com 

 fortable winter quarters. 



I did not get the newspapers in the Hotchkiss 

 woods. It was part of my regimen not to get 



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