﻿AUTUMN. 229 



enough, it is a fine sight. I once saw a company of little girls 

 coming from a thick wood in a country town, and they did look 

 charming indeed. Be careful what you gather in your excursions 

 after colored leaves. A friend of mine, two years since, went a short 

 distance into the country, and returned in the evening with a nice 

 parcel of these emblems of decay. In a few hours his hands began 

 to swell up, and for several days he was the very image of distress. 

 He had gathered part of his bouquet from a copse of dogwood, the 

 leaves of which in the autumn are of a most tempting red color, and 

 was sadly poisoned. The leaves look somewhat like laurel, and 

 the sappy bark is very poisonous. A witty person was once asked 

 what the difference was between a dog and dogwood. One is known 

 by its bark, the other by his bite, immediately answered the wit. 



Perhaps the most pleasant employment, for the boys at this season 

 is gathering nuts. Hazelnuts and some other varieties are ripe in 

 September ; but the walnut, the chestnut, the butternut, and some 

 others, do not fall until we have several hard, freezing, severe 

 frosts; black frosts, as they are sometimes called. I suppose mv 

 younger readers imagine all frosts to be white, like what we see 

 upon the boards on a cold morning. They are all white ; but the 

 hard ones the real freezers, leave a black mark. After a black 

 frost, and the warm sun has risen, the leaves of the tender gar 

 den vegetables turn of a very dark color, nearly black, and hence 

 the name of a black frost. Well, such a frost as this opens the 

 burs of the chestnut, and after a high wind to rattle out the nuts, 

 you may find the ground about covered. 



One afternoon, not long since, I was in the country walking 

 leisurely by the side of a fence nearly overrun with bushes, when I 

 heard voices upon the other side. I listened, and heard a small 

 boy and his more mature sister, lamenting the loss of something. 

 Probably their names were Willie and Mary. 



" Well, this is pretty well," said Willie ; " only last week there 

 were plenty of hazelnuts on these bushes, and now they are all 

 gone. I guess Rob Burr -has been here and stole them all." 



" Hush, Will," said Mary, " you have no right to accuse Robert 

 of such conduct. He is a good boy, and I am sure would not steal 

 your hazelnuts. Perhaps some one else has taken them." 



