AUTUMN TIDES. 123 



of dust, they show quite "plainly and sag down like a 

 stretched rope, or sway and undulate like a hawser 

 in the tide. 



They recall a verse of our rugged poet, Walt Whit- 

 man : 



" A noiseless patient spider, 



I mark'd where, in a little promontory, it stood isolated : 

 Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, 

 It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament out of itself ; 

 Ever unreeling them ever tirelessly spreading them. 



" And you, my soul, where you stand, 

 Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, 

 Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing. 

 Seeking the spheres to connect them. 

 Till the bridge you will need be formed till the ductile anchor 



hold; 

 Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, my soul." 



To return a little, September may be described as 

 the month of tall weeds. Where they have been suf- 

 fered to stand, along fences, by road-sides, and in for- 

 gotten comers, red-root, pig-weed, rag- weed, ver- 

 vain, golden-rod, burdock, elecampane, thistles, teasels, 

 nettles, asters, etc., how they lift themselves up as if 

 not afraid to be seen now ! They are all outlaws ; every 

 man's hand is against them ; yet how surely they hold 

 their own ! They love the road-side, because here 

 they are comparatively safe ; and ragged and dusty, 

 like the common tramps that they are, they form one 

 of the characteristic features of early fall. 



I have often noticed in what haste certain weeds 

 are at times to produce their seeds. Red-root will 

 grow three or four feet high when it has the whole 



