254 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



by, for weeks, almost every day ; and, of course, 

 this is likely to prove true of other vines, a fact 

 all too apt to be overlooked. The poison-ivy 

 climbs to the very top of many a large tree and 

 in time appears to smother it. This growth, 

 like a huge hairy serpent, clings so tenaciously 

 to some oaks I have seen that all my strength 

 was necessary to detach it. It certainly ap- 

 pears, in time, to kill the tree it encircles, but I 

 am not positive ; but this is not true of the 

 Virginia creeper. Near my home is a sassafras, 

 just seventy feet high, and for twenty years the 

 creeper has mingled its leaves with those of the 

 tree's outermost and uppermost twigs. When 

 the autumnal coloring occurs, there is a min- 

 gling of dark red and yellow that is worth a 

 day's journey to see. 



The dim light of deep, dark woods has been 

 much written about, but it is dimness that does 

 not obscure. I have found it a developing light 

 that brings the minor details into satisfactory 

 prominence. If color is important in determin- 

 ing the identity of an object, we can be sure in 

 the woods, when it would be a matter of doubt 

 in the open fields. This is peculiarly true of 



