VII 



An Autumn Picture 



"Good-bye, Summer!" 



G. J. Whyte Melville. 



AUTUMN is perhaps the most beautiful 

 season in Bohemia. The sun shines his 

 brightest, the skies are their bluest, and the 

 trees of the forest seem to vie with each other in 

 the rich and gorgeous colouring of their foliage." 

 Only the firs remain dark, sombre, and unchanged 

 like old staunch friends, ever and always the same ! 



And yet there is something particularly sad about 

 autumn. The summer is dead, and bleak cold 

 winter is coming, and everything is changing. One 

 feels almost grateful to the firs that they at least do 

 not alter ! 



So it is in life. There comes a season not 

 necessarily when one is past middle age ; it comes 

 (alas !) to many in youth that one may call its 

 autumn ! 



It is when everything that made life joyous and 

 bright has gone out of our lives when that golden 

 dream that you have cherished so long has faded 



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