OCTOBER 229 



how many sepals it will have, or what disposi- 

 tion it will make of them. The thing one can 

 be safe to look for is the great, golden constant 

 heart. 



The October stone is, rightly enough, the 

 opal, its pearly lights and pale amethystine 

 shadows are her late dawns, and her early, 

 haunted dusks. Its blues are her skies, its 

 greens her young springing wheat, and its reds 

 and pinks and yellows are those of her ripened 

 leaves. And since this is true, the October 

 garden must have plenty of lawn and plenty 

 of shrubbery, and a good background of trees. 

 For once I will not beg for white pines, but will 

 have red oaks and black oaks, and a hickory, 

 and one or two purple ashes, and a distant 

 row of maples. Rock maple for yellow, and 

 soft maples for the reds that outblush the sun 

 that now sets in so dense a bank of smoke that 

 we can look into his eyes unharmed. Between 

 the trees and the zinnia beds sumachs shall 

 grow ; the tall ones which colour orange and 

 pink ; the short ones whose crimson leaves are 

 stained with purple and olive. Both of these 

 fine natives carry stiff cones of claret-coloured 

 fruit far into the winter, and both have tropical 



