SEPTEMBER 

 29 



I see many myrtle-birds now about the house, 

 this forenoon, on the advent of cooler weather. 

 They keep flying up against the house and the 

 window, and fluttering there as if they would 

 come in, or alight on the woodpile or the pump. 

 They would commonly be mistaken for sparrows, 

 but show more white when they fly, beside the 

 yellow on the rump and sides of breast, seen near 

 to, and two white bars on the wings ; chubby 



birds. 



THOKEAU: Autumn. 



30 



Standing on the railroad, I look across the pond 

 to Pine Hill, where the outside trees, and the 

 shrubs scattered generally through the wood, glow 

 yellow and scarlet through the green, like fires just 

 kindled at the base of the trees, a general confla- 

 gration just fairly under way, soon to envelop 

 every tree. The hillside forest is all aglow along 

 its edge, and in all its cracks and fissures, and 

 soon the flames will leap upwards to the tops of 



the tallest trees. 



THOREAU: Autumn. 



