A MORNING WITH NATURE, ETC. 243 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



A MORNING WITH NATURE, AND AN AFTERNOON WITH 

 THE DUCKS 



ONE pleasant afternoon in the month of November, 

 1887, I sat at my office window, admiring the beautiful 

 day, as the sun shone warmly, brightening every ob- 

 ject and causing the floating ice to glisten like silver 

 as it piled up on the outjetting points on the Missis- 

 sippi river. It brought back to me pleasant recollections 

 of a day similar, and at once my thoughts wandered in- 

 to fairy land, at least so far away that I picked up 

 my pen and allowed it to drift along by the current 

 of my thoughts until the last hours of the declining 

 day cast the sun's bright gleams on the variegated 

 leaves, so plainly to be seen on the tall trees, fluttering 

 their brown and golden shapes in the slight breeze, as 

 they fell to the ground carpeting the earth with a soft 

 covering, victims of the blighting touch of Jack Frost. 

 I wrote and wrote, wandering in an earthly paradise. 

 Before me nothing was discernible except the grand 

 sight I had once enjoyed, and in my vision that glorious 

 morning was so plainly to be seen that all else was for- 

 gotten ; and once again I was far from city hum, float- 

 ing down the river on the broad surface of the Missis- 

 sippi. Awakening from my pleasant reverie, I saw it 

 was twilight. Hastily putting my manuscript together, 

 I thought an instant, then christened it. " A morning 

 with Nature, and an afternoon with the ducks." 



