24 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



waning of summer. Already there have been a 

 few sunsets with glorious autumnal coloring. The 

 local watermelon season is about over. For three 

 weeks there has been an abundant supply, and the 

 men of both surveying and contractor's gangs 

 have been liberal buyers from the farm boy who 

 watched over a hoard of the fruit in front of the 

 farmyard fence. Wild plums and wild grapes 

 have been quite abundant in the copses along the 

 river, but now only a few remain on the trees and 

 vines. It was early in September, a few years 

 ago, when the wheat was being threshed and the 

 goldenrod was blooming all over the Dakota prai- 

 ries, that we made our excursion to the banks of 

 the Jim, bringing back a great basketful of wild 

 plums. From the vines along the Jim or Turtle 

 Creek, we brought back abundance of mid grapes,^ 

 and from both fruits the women folks made de- 

 licious jellies and preserves to sweeten the long- 

 territorial winter. 



Along the sandy dumps of our roadbed one can 

 now often see hundreds of bright-tinted, swift- 

 footed tiger beetles, flashing in the sunlight. They 

 seem characteristic of the season. The birds in 

 general have become inconspicuous, not only in 

 song but in presence. One afternoon not long ago 

 we watched the flight of a large flock of cranes — 



1 For a description of a similar excursion in Iowa about 1845, 

 see Caroline A. Soule's Pet of tJie Seitlcmeni, Chapter IX. 



