NOVEMBER 139 



tral Iowa. The temperature usually goes to sev- 

 enty degrees or higher during the month. Insect 

 life is often flourishing — not only bugs, wasps, 

 bees, spiders, crickets, gnats, grasshoppers, in- 

 cluding the ''bird-grasshoppers,'^ but also butter- 

 flies. On the thirteenth this year a fine grapta 

 butterfly of an unidentified species was captured 

 from a house wall and kept indoors several days, 

 when it died, perhaps from lack of food. Prob- 

 ably a few dragon-flies might be seen some years. 

 Autumn foliage lingers sometimes well into No- 

 vember, and bonfires this year have been burning 

 throughout the month. Stevenson's little poem is 

 applicable even to the Thanksgiving season here : 



AUTUMN FIRES 



In the other gardens, 



And all up the vale, 

 From the autumn bonfires 



See the smoke trail ! 

 Pleasant summer over 



And all the summer flowers, 

 The red fire blazes, 



The gray smoke towers. 

 Sing a song of seasons, 



Something bright in all ! 

 Flowers in the summer, 



Fires in the fall ! 



Most flowers of real beauty pass A\ith October, 

 but quite a list of blossoms, if one includes humble 



