AUTUMN TIDES 101 



some way be associated with the Indian. It is red 

 and yellow and dusky like him. The smoke of his 

 camp-fire seems again in the air. The memory of 

 him pervades the woods. His plumes and mocca- 

 sins and blanket of skins form just the costume the 

 season demands. It was doubtless his chosen pe- 

 riod. The gods smiled upon him then if ever. 

 The time of the chase, the season of the buck and 

 the doe, and of the ripening of all forest fruits; the 

 time when all men are incipient hunters, when the 

 first frosts have given pungency to the air, when to 

 be abroad on the hills or in the woods is a delight 

 that both old and young feel, — if the red aborigine 

 ever had his summer of fullness and contentment, 

 it must have been at this season, and it fitly bears 

 his name. 



In how many respects fall imitates or parodies 

 the spring! It is indeed, in some of its features, a 

 sort of second youth of the year. Things emerge 

 and become conspicuous again. The trees attract 

 all eyes as in May. The birds come forth from 

 their summer privacy and parody their spring reun- 

 ions and rivalries; some of them sing a little after 

 a silence of months. The robins, bluebirds, meadow- 

 larks, sparrows, crows, all sport, and call, and be- 

 have in a manner suggestive of spring. The cock 

 grouse drums in the woods as he did in April and 

 May. The pigeons reappear, and the wild geese 

 and ducks. The witch-hazel blooms. The trout 

 spawns. The streams are again full. The air is 

 humid, and the moisture rises in the ground. Na- 



