OCTOBER 



A large flock of grackles amid the willows by 

 the river-side, or chiefly concealed low in the but- 

 ton-bushes beneath them, though quite near me. 

 There they keep up their spluttering notes, though 

 somewhat less loud, I fancy, than in spring. 

 These are the first I have seen, and now for some 

 time I think the redwings have been gone. These 

 are the first arrivers from the north, where they 



breed. 



TBOREAU: Autumn. 



Succory still, with its cool blue, here and there, 

 and Hieracium Canadense still quite fresh, with its 

 pretty, broad, strap-shaped rays, broadest at the 

 end, alternately long and short, with five very 

 regular sharp teeth in the end of each. The scar- 

 let leaves and stem of the rhexia, some time out 

 of flower, make almost as bright a patch in the 

 meadow now as the flowers did. Its seed vessels 

 are perfect little cream pitchers of graceful form. 



THOREAU: Autumn. 



