138 AUGUST. 



preceded them, as if Nature, like a partial mother, had 

 lavished her best gifts upon these her youngest children. 

 The bushes that support them are overtopped by other 

 plants, that seem to feel an envious delight in concealing 

 them from observation, but they cannot blot them from 

 our memory, nor be admired as we admire them. The 

 clethra with its white odoriferous flowers, and the button- 

 bush with its elegant globular heads, strive vainly to equal 

 them in fragrance or beauty. The proud and scornful 

 thistle rears its head close by their side, and seems to 

 mock at the fragility of these lovely flowers ; but the wild 

 briar, though its roses have faded, still gives out its undy- 

 ing perfume, as if the essence of the withered flowers 

 lingered about their former leafy habitation, like spirits 

 about the places they loved in their lifetime. 



In the latter part of the month we begin to mark the 

 approaching footsteps of autumn. Twilight is chilly and 

 we perceive the greater length of the nights and evening's 

 earlier dew. The morning sun is later in the heavens, 

 and sooner tints the fleecy clouds of evening. The bright 

 verdure of the trees has faded to a more dusky green ; 

 and here and there in different parts of the woods may be 

 found a sere and yellow leaf, like the white hairs that are 

 interspersed among the dark-brown tresses of manhood, 

 that indicate the sure advance of hoary years. The fields 

 of ripe and yellow grain gleam through the open places in 

 the woods, making a pleasant contrast with their green- 

 ness, displaying in the same instant the signs of a cheer- 

 ful harvest and the melancholy decay of vegetation. 

 The swallows assemble their little hosts upon the roofs 

 and fences, preparing for their annual migration, and all 

 things announce the speedy decline of summer. 



Already do I hear at nightfall the chirping of the 

 cicadas, whose notes are at the same time the harvest 

 hymn of nature and a dirge over the departure of flowers. 



