SEPTEMBER 



Asters and goldenrods were the livery which 

 nature wore at present. The latter alone ex- 

 pressed all the ripeness of the season, and shed 

 their mellow lustre over the fields, as if the now 

 declining summer's sun had bequeathed its hues 

 to them. . . . On every hillside, and in every 

 valley, stood countless asters, coreopses, tansies, 

 goldenrods, and the whole race of yellow flowers, 

 like Brahminical devotees, turning steadily with 

 their luminary from morning till night. 



THOREAU: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack 

 Rivers. 



8 



Shoals of golden and silver minnows rose to the 

 surface to behold the heavens, and then sheered 

 off into more sombre aisles; they swept by as if 

 moved by one mind, continually gliding past each 

 other, and yet preserving the form of their bat- 

 talion unchanged, as if they were still embraced 

 by the transparent membrane which held the 

 spawn ; a young band of brethren and sisters try- 

 ing their new fins ; now they wheeled, now shot 

 ahead, and when we drove them to the shore and 

 cut them off, they dexterously tacked and passed 

 underneath the boat. 



THOREAU: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack 

 Rivers. 



