THE FALL OF THE YEAR 



CHAPTER I 



THE CLOCK STRIKES ONE 



" The clock strikes one, 



And all is still around the house ! 

 But in the gloom f 



A little mouse 

 Goes creepy-creep from room to room." 



HE clock of the year strikes one ! 

 not in the dark silent night of winter, 

 but in the hot light of midsummer. 



It is a burning July day, one 

 o'clock in the afternoon of the year, 

 and all is still around the fields 

 and woods. All is still. All is hushed. 

 But yet, as I listen, I hear things in 

 the dried grass, and in the leaves 

 overhead, going " creepy-creep," as you have heard 

 the little mouse in the silent night. 



I am lying on a bed of grass in the shade of a 

 great oak tree, as the clock of the year strikes one. 

 I am all alone in the quiet of the hot, hushed day. 

 Alone? Are you alone in the big upstairs at mid- 

 night, when you hear the little mouse going " creepy- 



