AUTUMN 53 



Even yet the world, viewed in broad spaces, 

 wears a clean, fresh aspect ; but near at hand 

 the herbage and shrubbery are all in the sere 

 and yellow leaf. So I am saying to myself 

 when I start at the sound of a Hudsonian 

 chickadee's nasal voice speaking straight into 

 my ear. The saucy chit has dropped into 

 the low poplar sapling over my head, and 

 surprised at what he discovers underneath, 

 lets fall a hasty Sick-a-day-day. His dress, 

 like his voice, compares unfavorably with 

 that of his cousin, our familiar blackcap. In 

 fact, I might say of him, with his dirty brown 

 headdress, what I was thinking of the road- 

 side vegetation : he looks dingy, out of con- 

 dition, frayed, discolored, belated, frost-bit- 

 ten. But I am delighted to see him, for 

 the first time at any such level as this, 

 and thank my stars that I sat down to rest 

 and cool off on this hard but convenient 

 boulder. 



A chipmunk thinks I have sat here long 

 enough, and feels no bashfulness about tell- 

 ing me so. Why should he ? Frankness is 

 esteemed a point of good manners in all nat- 

 ural society. A man shoots down the hill 



