September in the Woods 171 



' fine nets of scorched dew,' hung everywhere by the 

 spider and dangling in mid-air. The hardy birches 

 have aged so slowly the process is hardly noticeable. 

 The Lady of the Wood is a little more portly and 

 matronly of aspect than in her girlishly slender days, 

 when her green and fluttering June dress was the 

 prettiest of the forest, but there is as yet nothing in 

 her looks to suggest the advance of winter. 



The hardy shrubs of the woodlands suffuse them 

 just now with the daintiest colours. Even the 

 eccentric gorse, whose gold a few months ago burn- 

 ished the glades, is in some places showing autumn 

 flowers of lighter hue. In corners where the may 

 bloomed most prodigally, the hawthorns are red- 

 dening with a fruit that later on will be prized by the 

 birds ; and the pickers, who are busy filling their 

 baskets with bramble berries, leave only those that 

 are russet. Growing by their side are tall ferns al- 

 ready showing an occasional dead or yellow leaf amid 

 their greenery. As the prevailing colour is dark and 

 heavy, the hues require a degree of sunshine for dis- 

 play ; but of that September is no niggard, and it 

 flowers the grassy carpet under the trees with a leafy 

 design done in light that in itself lends a charm to a 

 walk in the forest. 



At no other season of the year does the woodland 

 appear more populous with bird life. Earlier in the 

 season the birds were engaged in family and domestic 

 duties and lived in deep seclusion ; when they were not 



