MINSTREL WEATHER 



seen spruce and larches against the deep 

 October sky, looking straight up from a 

 yielding club-moss pillow. The outlines 

 and colors of the quiet branches are shown 

 most memorably upon the vault of that 

 arching lapis-lazuli roof, draped with float- 

 ing chiffon of the clouds. Climb up among 

 the boughs, and the carven quality is gone. 

 They are dim and soft. You must go 

 close to earth to behold tree- top forms. 

 The supine view is magical. 



Revealed in uncanny splendor by the 

 death of verdure, brilliant and evil fungi 

 come from the dark mold in fall, orange 

 and copper, vermilion and cinnabar, dwell- 

 ing as vampires upon trees brought low. 

 Some wear the terra-cotta of the alert 

 little lizards that, inquisitive as squirrels, 

 will lift their heads from bark or stone 

 and give back gaze for gaze. As leaves 

 that came from the sap of roots go back 

 to the roots in ashes, so ants take care 

 that fallen oaks shall be transformed into 

 the soil from which young oaks will spring, 

 and brown dust, when they have ended, 

 is all that abides of the tallest tree. Among 

 them pass the bobbing, glistening beetles. 

 This immortal and thronging activity of 



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