28o TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



bardy poplars which, In this picture, stand out 

 so solemnly against the twilight sky. The 

 picture, however, owes its title to the marvel- 

 lously painted heap of fallen leaves, each one 

 carefully individualised and faithfully depicted, 

 which the children are piling up for burning. 

 The scene is a garden with which Millais was 

 familiar, and the children are portraits. The 

 reader will recollect that he has been asked to 

 find the pathos of autumn, not in the trees — 

 which have actively rid themselves of the 

 leaves for which they have no further use, while 

 they have next year's leaves already in bud — 

 but in the fallen leaves themselves. I may be 

 permitted to quote what I have said elsewhere 

 about this picture, in a handbook to the pictures 

 in the Manchester City Art Gallery, where it 

 has found a permanent home. ''It has been 

 said of this picture by one critic that its signi- 

 ficance lies 'in the contrast of the unpoetical 

 girls with the deeply pathetic landscape '. But 

 are the girls unpoetical ? Assuredly the eldest 

 one is not. If we read that face aright, those 

 wistful eyes and that drooping mouth, we see 

 that the power of love has come to her, and also 

 some sense of the great paradox of life : that 



