OCTOBER 93 



Grinnell, October 27, 1902. 



The fickleness of April is proverbial. Looking 

 over local October records for the past few years, 

 one is forced to admit also the changeable temper 

 of this month in our region. The truth seems to 

 be that each month has a comparatively small 

 number of constants and a large number of vari- 

 ants. The weather is probably less determinate 

 than the processes of bird and plant life, vary as 

 these do to some extent from year to 3'ear, and de- 

 pendent in part as they are on the weather. Pope 

 criticized Spenser for attempting, in The Shep- 

 herd's Calendar, to individualize each of the 

 twelve months ; the Augustan boy poet resting con- 

 tent with the four seasons in his Pastorals. Pos- 

 sibly Pope was right, for English conditions; at 

 least when one reads the October of the Calendar, 

 one finds absolutely nothing that gives distinctive 

 character to the month. 



Last 3^ear and this, October has given oppor- 

 tunity for much pleasant outdoor life — rambles 

 across fields, campfires by hedges, wheel rides over 

 hard, smooth roads, drives to richly colored woods. 

 From such excursions one brings back golden 

 brown oak branches, a pocket full of hazel-nuts — 

 the nuts of less certain quality than the burs — , 

 perhaps large scarlet haws from some woodland 

 thorn tree, or chains of bittersweet from hedge- 

 row or thicket. The sharp, stout spines of some of 



