SEPTEMBER 53 



while arrowhead showed its green leaves and white 

 blossoms down by muddy waters. Ijousewort 

 clung- to the grassy banks of cuts, and goldenrod 

 was ^^ everywhere." The coneflowers still appear 

 in large numbers, but a great many of the yellow 

 rays have fallen of late. 



This morning the trolley took us past thistles, 

 sunflowers, smartweed, great masses of white san- 

 icle and purple lobelia, past a park of noble oaks, 

 and vineyards with heavy clusters and withering 

 foliage, to the Fort. A warm sun shone in a per- 

 fectly cloudless sky. From the dusty crushed- 

 rock pavements the noonday glare was like that of 

 a desert ; and a very summery heat was reflected 

 from the bright red, shadeless brick walls of the 

 houses of officers and the barracks of rank and 

 file. From the large, level parade, treeless, close- 

 mown, with a few" fruited dandelion heads and no 

 bloom except for a little white clover, the crickets 

 were chirping, while over its expanse hovered 

 white, orange, and monarch butterflies, and locusts 

 and grasshoppers sprang from the grass on every 

 side. The parade is on somewhat high ground; 

 from it one gazes far off over farm groves, ripe 

 cornfields with tall stalks tipped by light brown 

 tassels, and a wide expanse of rolling prairie be- 

 yond. Five or six miles across fields and mead- 

 ows rose the great dome of the Capitol, at that dis- 

 tance silvery rather than golden in the brilliant 



