OUTDOORS 



the water and occasionally his mocking laugh- 

 ter sounds in the twilight. 



Wild ducks go by, singly, in pairs, and in 

 flocks, and down on the " points " and around 

 sheltered coves the " decoys " of the hunters 

 are bobbing up and down. Bluebills, ring- 

 bill, red-heads, butterballs, and occasionally 

 a merganser, dip to the decoys and are met 

 with a whizzing hail of shot. In the woods 

 the fox-squirrel leaps nimbly along through 

 the leaves, or swings in the top of some tall 

 hickory. Hickory-nuts are ripening now, and 

 the thick green hulls begin to split and dis- 

 color as a late October sun searches them out 

 among the branches. Rabbits flit along the 

 roadside as evening approaches, and doves 

 and robins come past to roost in the swamp as 

 the sun goes down. The colors are myriad- 

 fold now red, green, yellow, brown, black, 

 and gray. 



There is a richness of tinting that tells of 

 maturity where " the flying gold of the ruined 

 woodlands drives through the air." The ban- 

 ners of the corn have shrivelled into rusty tat- 

 ters, and golden-brown tassels peer out from 

 crackling husks. A woodchuck stands by his 



