NATURE'S CALENDAR 237 



NOVEMBER 



November, like March, is a struggling November i 



mixture of winter and summer. The 

 moods of the month vary as the battle 

 sways back and forth with the changing 

 winds, and the legions of cold gradually 

 win their way in their advance from the 

 •North. In Canada they are well en- 

 camped before the month is done, and the 

 snowdrifts, like white tents, are heaped 

 upon the plains and clog the paths of the 

 woods; but in the Middle States only 

 flurries of snow are usually seen, and 

 frosts are rarely hard, though when I was 

 a boy in southern Michigan we expected 

 skating on Thanksgiving Day. 



Tradition makes November a month of 



" Wailing winds and naked woods 

 And meadows brown and sere." 



But this is largely English tradition, and 

 doesn't fit our drier and sunnier climate, 

 especially in the middle latitudes. It often 

 happens that the greater part of the month 

 is dry, cool, yet balmy and still and sweet- 

 ly sunny, so that it is as delightful to be 

 out-of-doors as in May. 



Yet how different is the landscape and 



