BIRDS AND NATURE. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 

 VOL. VIII. OCTOBER, 1900. No. 3 



O suns and skies and clouds of June, 

 And flowers of June together, 



Ye cannot rival for one hour 

 October's bright blue weather. 



When loud the bumble-bee makes haste, 



Belated, thriftless vagrant, 

 And golden-rod is dying fast, 



And lanes with grapes are fragrant ; 



When gentians roll their fringes tight 



To save them for the morning, 

 And chestnuts fall from satin burrs 



Without a sound of warning ; 



When on the ground red apples lie 



In piles like jewels shining, 

 And redder still on old stone walls 



Are leaves of woodbine twining ; 



When all the lovely wayside things 

 Their white-winged seeds are sowing, 



And in the fields, still green and fair, 

 Late aftermaths are growing; 



When springs run low, and on the brooks, 



In idle golden freighting, 

 Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush 



Of woods, for winter waiting; 



When comrades seek sweet country haunts, 



By twos and twos together, 

 And count like misers hour by hour, 



October's bright blue weather. 



O suns and skies and flowers of June, 

 Count all your boasts together, 



Love loveth best of all the year 

 October's bright blue weather. 



Helen Hunt Jackson, 



Copyright, 1900, by A. W. Mum ford. 



