JUST BEFORE WINTER, 159 



Two York roses flower on the hedge : altogether, twenty- 

 six flowers, a large bouquet for October 19, gathered, 

 too, in a hilly country. 



Besides these, note the broad hedge-parsley leaves, 

 tunnelled by leaf-miners ; bright masses of haws gleam- 

 ing in the sun ; scarlet hips ; great brown cones fallen 

 from the spruce firs ; black heart-shaped bindweed 

 leaves here, and buff bryony leaves yonder ; green and 

 scarlet berries of white bryony hanging thickly on bines 

 from which the leaves have withered ; and bunches of 

 grass, half yellow and half green, along the mound. Now 

 that the leaves have been brushed from the beech 

 saplings you may see how the leading stem rises in a 

 curious wavy line ; some of the leaves lie at the foot, 

 washed in white dew, that stays in the shade all day ; 

 the wetness of the dew makes the brownish red of the 

 leaf show clear and bright. One leaf falls in the still- 

 ness of the air slowly, as if let down by a cord of 

 gossamer gently, and not as a stone falls — fate delayed 

 to the last. A moth adheres to a bough, his wings half 

 open, like a short brown cloak flung over his shoulders. 

 Pointed leaves, some drooping, some horizontal, some 

 fluttering slightly, still stay on the tall willow wands, 

 like bannerets on the knights' lances, much torn in the 

 late battle of the winds. There is a shower from a clear 

 sky under the trees in the forest ; brown acorns rattling 

 as they fall, and rich coloured Spanish chestnuts thump- 

 ing the sward, and sometimes striking you as you pass 

 under ; they lie on the ground in pocketfuls. Specks of 

 brilliant scarlet dot the grass like some bright berries 

 blown from the bushes ; but on stooping to pick them, 

 they are found to be the heads of a fungus. Near by 

 lies a black magpie's feather, spotted with round dots of 

 white. 



