LEAFING 85 



But how they gladden and cheer the October 

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

 ished away ? See here, under this big pine, a whole 

 garden of arbutus, green and budded, almost ready 

 to bloom ! The snows shall come before their sweet 

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

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

 up in saucers of clean water in our sunny south 

 windows. 



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; 

 coming upon a snail cemetery, in a hollow hickory 

 stump ; 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 

 up a bag and hold it open, while the third boy stuffs 

 in the crackling leaves. Then I come along with my 

 big feet and pack the leaves in tight, and onto the 

 rig goes the bulging thing ! 



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

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

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

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



