AUTUMN 67 



angular shape as well as for their peculiar 

 shade of green. I wished for a blossom. 

 If the dandelion sometimes anticipates the 

 season, why not the coltsfoot ? But I found 

 no sign of flower or bud. Probably the 

 plant is of a less impatient habit ; but I have 

 seen it so seldom that all my ideas about it 

 are no better than guesswork. Along the 

 wayside was maiden-hair fern, also, which I 

 do not come upon any too often in this 

 mountain country. 



Midway of the hill stands a solitary house, 

 where I found my approach spied upon 

 through a crack between the curtain and the 

 sash of what seemed to be a parlor window ; 

 a flattering attention which, after the man- 

 ner of high public functionaries, I took as a 

 tribute not to myself, but to the role I was 

 playing. No doubt travelers on foot are 

 rare on that difficult, out-of-the-way road, 

 and the walker rather than the man was 

 what filled my lady's eye ; unless, as may 

 easily have been true, she was expecting to 

 see a peddler's pack. At this point the 

 road crooks a sharp elbow, and henceforth 

 passes through cultivated country, or- 



