124 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



year — the phase of Indian Summer, and the 

 phase of real white man's winter. Early in the 

 month and as late as the twentieth, some days have 

 been clear and warm, pleasant for tennis or for 

 long bicycle rides into the country, with tranquil 

 skies, beautiful sunsets, gossamer threads shim- 

 mering over the cornfields. Some days have been 

 a trifle too warm for the best mental or moral re- 

 sults. Four days ago when the snowfall earlier in 

 the month was almost forgotten, we awoke to find 

 the real winter — cold, sleet, snow, and wind. The 

 first sleigh-bells of the season rang along the 

 streets, and they are ringing tonight, under beauti- 

 ful moonlight. From scanty records and uncer- 

 tain memory, it seems probable that long-endur- 

 ing snow and ice have been much less frequent in 

 the Iowa November, during the past generation or 

 so, than rain and sleet. On November twentieth in 

 1880, the wild geese were heard honking, through 

 a snowstorm that lasted all day, and a few days 

 later with two inches of snow on the ground, the 

 first snowballing and first sleighing of that winter 

 were enjoyed. In 1883, there were sleet storms on 

 the twenty-first and twenty-second, and on the 

 twenty-fifth, hail, with thunder and lightning — a 

 somewhat unusual storm for the season. 



The November notes in Miss Cooper's Rural 

 Hours, though not extensive in comparison with 

 those of other months, contain some very interest- 



