LEAFING 



85 



\ , But how they gladden and cheer the October 

 \- woods! Summer dead? Hope all gone? Life van- 

 / ashed away ? See here, under this big pine, a whole 

 I 'garden of arbutus, green and budded, almost ready $ 

 to bloom ! The snows shall come before their sweet v 

 ; eyes open ; but open they will at the very first touch *J 

 I of spring. We will gather a few, and let them wake I 

 up in saucers of clean water in our sunny south I 

 .windows. I 



Leaves for the pig, and arbutus for us ! We make a| 

 clean sweep down the hillside, "jumping" a rabbit | \ 

 from its form, or bed, under a brush-pile ; discovering 

 where a partridge roosts in alow-spreading hemlock; 

 joming upon a snail cemetery, in a hollow hickory 

 :ump ; turning up a yellow-jacket's nest, built two- 

 thirds underground ; tracing the tunnel of a bob- 

 tailed mouse in its purposeless windings in the leaf 

 mould; digging into a woodchuck's 



" But come, boys, get after those bags ! It is leaves 

 in the hay-rig that we want, not woodchucks at the 

 bottom of woodchuck holes." Two small boys catch 

 ip a bag and hold it open, while the third boy stuffi 

 in the crackling leaves. Then I come along with m 



)ig feet and pack the leaves in tight, and onto the 

 % goes the bulging thing ! 



Exciting? If you can't believe it exciting, hopj 

 up on the load and let us jog you home. Swish ! bang !| 

 thump! tip! turn! joggle! jolt! Hold on to youri 

 ribs ! Look out for the stump ! Is n't it fun to go leaf-! 



5 



le 



