A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



queens in it, but the workers had all gone. 

 The queens were evidently weathering the 

 first frosts and storms here, and waiting 

 for the Indian summer to go forth and seek 

 a permanent winter abode. If the covers 

 could be taken off the fields and woods at 

 this season, how many interesting facts of 

 natural history would be revealed ! — the 

 crickets, ants, bees, reptiles, animals, and, 

 for aught I know, the spiders and flies 

 asleep or getting ready to sleep in their 

 winter dormitories ; the fires of life banked 

 up, and burning just enough to keep the 

 spark over till spring. 



The fish all run down the stream in the 

 fall except the trout ; it runs up or stays 

 up and spawns in November, the male be- 

 coming as brilliantly tinted as the deepest- 

 dyed maple leaf. I have often wondered 

 why the trout spawns in the fall, instead of 

 in the spring like other fish. Is it not be- 

 cause a full supply of clear spring water can 

 be counted on at that season more than at 

 any other ? The brooks are not so liable 

 to be suddenly muddied by heavy showers, 

 and defiled with the washings of the roads 

 and fields, as they are in spring and sum- 

 mer. The artificial breeder finds that ab- 



176 



