Autumn 



I fancy, much of its reputation to Bry- 

 ant's well-known lines ; not that it does 

 not deserve the interest which has cen- 

 tred about it, but that, while everyone 

 has heard of it, comparatively few people 

 seem to have ferreted out its haunts. 

 Probably Bryant, also, is largely respon- 

 sible for the somewhat inaccurate notions 

 which are afloat concerning its usual sea- 

 son of blooming. This is in September, 

 long before the 



" woods are bare and birds are flown " ; 



although Thoreau, if I remember rightly, 

 records that he found it in flower as late 

 as November yth, when certainly, 



"frosts and shortening days portend 



The aged year is near his end." 



My first fringed gentian was the re- 

 ward of a forty-mile drive, taken one 

 cold autumn day for the sole purpose of 

 paying court to its blue loveliness. It 

 enticed us into a wet, green meadow, 



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