XXVIII. 



SEPTEMBER. 



WE have hardly become familiar with summer ere 

 autumn has arrived, with its cool nights, its foggy 

 mornings, and its clear halcyon days. Yet the close of 

 summer is but the commencement of a variety of 

 pleasant rural occupations, of reaping and fruit gath 

 ering, and the still more exciting sports of the field. 

 After this time we are comparatively exempt from the 

 extremes of temperature, and are free to ramble at any 

 distance, without exposure to the sudden showers, that 

 so often spring up in summer, without warning us of 

 their approach. Though the spicy odors of June are 

 no longer wafted upon the gales, yet there is a clearness 

 and a freshness in the atmosphere, more agreeable than 

 fragrance, affording buoyancy to the mind and elas 

 ticity to the frame. 



The various employments of the farmer are changed 

 into agreeable recreations ; and the anxious toils of 

 planting and haymaking have given place to the less 

 wearisome and more exhilarating labors of the harvest. 

 Besides the pleasures of the sportsman, there are succes 

 sions of fruit-gatherings, and rural excursions of vari 

 ous kinds, from the beginning of this month to the end 

 of the next, that impart to the young many cheerful 



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