ACCORDING TO SEASON 



silvery mist, and how the road sides wore a 

 many-hued embroidery, and that the sumach in 

 the swamp was beginning to look like the burn- 

 ing bush on Horeb, I felt that there could be no 

 beauty like this, which foretold the end; yet al- 

 ready I realize that before long the purple shad- 

 ows will lie so softly upon the snowy fields, and 

 the faint rose of dawn or twilight will flush with 

 such tenderness the white side of the mountain, 

 that the earth may seem lovelier in her shroud 

 than in any of her living garments. 



But it is altogether human to set especial value 

 upon the things of which we are about to be de- 

 prived, and now, more than ever, we linger out of 

 doors, yielding ourselves to influences which lie 

 A bene- upon our spirits like a benediction, storing our 

 minds with images which, among less inspiring 

 surroundings, will 



" flash upon that inward eye, 

 Which is the bliss of solitude." 



Few Few flowers are abroad, barring the asters and 



flowers , , , , r . . . , 



golden-rods, yet these few we invest with a pecul- 

 iar interest and affection, experiencing a sensation 

 of gratitude, almost, as toward some beings who 

 have stood stanch when the multitudes fell away. 

 No group of plants belong more distinctively 

 to the season than do the gentians. Of these, 



168 



