MID- AUTUMN ALONG THE OLD CANAL. 195 



delight that I heard, as I strolled along on this bright 

 October day, his merry "che-che che-che-che" and saw 

 him as he ran up and down the side of a stump in 

 search of insects. He saw me also and seemed to 

 know that it was Sunday, and, therefore, he need 

 have no fear; for, instead of flitting away as is his 

 usual custom, he came nearer and nearer, seeking, as 

 it were, to gain my friendship, until at last I could 

 have touched him with my hand and even did reach 

 it forth, thinking that, like Thoreau's sparrow, he might 

 light thereon. But some spirit must have whispered 

 to him of his three dead kinsmen whose skins form 

 part of my collection ; for no sooner did I stretch 

 forth my hand than he was up and away like a flash. 

 Ah, my little feathered friend, thou needst not thus 

 so suddenly have left my presence, for I had no 

 thoughts of murder in my heart, but simply wished 

 to bid thee welcome to thy winter's home! 



I rested for a time beneath a tall white oak and 

 watched the falling leaves as, obedient to the great 

 force of gravitation, they drifted slowly towards the 

 center of the earth. Who can tell when a leaf breaks 

 its hold upon the parent tree where its resting phice 

 will be? It comes fluttering down on account of the 



broad expanse which its light weight 

 A Falling Leaf. 



presents to the resistance or the atmos- 

 phere. It is borne, now in this direction, now in 

 that, by the eddying gusts until at last it rests upon 

 a pile of a hundred others, perhaps fifty, perhaps 

 five hundred feet from a perpendicular from where 

 it started. By the action of water and oxygen, it 

 and its companions are soon changed into inorganic 



