CHAPTER X 



TURTLE-HEAD AND JEWEL-WEED 



In my town, summer, whom the almanack 

 calmly orders out on August 3ist, refuses to be 

 evicted in person and lingers serenely while the 

 furniture is being removed, often until late Sep- 

 tember. In these September days I think we 

 love her best, perhaps because we know that soon 

 we shall lose her, and already the parting has 

 begun. It is not that certain flowers that came 

 joyously in June are now but dry bracts and seed 

 pods. She has given us other beauties and fra- 

 grance to take their places. It is rather that 

 summer herself is gently breaking with us, giv- 

 ing us the full joy of her warmth through the 

 day, but discreetly withdrawing at nightfall and 

 lingering late in her own apartments of crisp 

 mornings when there is a tonic as of frost in the 

 air, whereby October woos us. 



The garnishings of her house are hardly fewer 

 while the moving van people are so busy, and I 

 am apt to delight in them all up to the very mo- 



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