OCTOBER 



21 



To-day, October 21st, I found the air in the 

 bushy fields and lanes under the woods loaded 

 with the perfume of the witch-hazel, a sweetish, 

 sickening odor. With the blooming of this bush, 

 Nature says, " Positively the last." It is a kind of 

 birth in death, of spring in fall, that impresses 

 one as a little uncanny. All trees and shrubs 

 form their flower-buds in the fall, and keep the 

 secret till spring. How comes the witch-hazel to 

 be the one exception, and to celebrate its floral 

 nuptials on the funeral day of its foliage ? 



BURROUGHS : Winter Sunshine. 



22 



The air this morning is full of bluebirds, and 

 again it is spring. There are many things to in- 

 dicate the renewing of spring at this season, the 

 blossoming of spring flowers, not to mention the 

 witch-hazel, the notes of spring birds, the .spring- 

 ing of grain and grass and other plants. 



THOREAU : Autumn. 



The jay is the bird of October. I have seen it 

 repeatedly flitting amid the bright leaves, of a dif- 

 ferent color from them all, and equally bright, 

 taking its flight from grove to grove. It, too, with 

 its bright color, stands for some ripeness in the 



bird harvest. 



THOREAU: Autumn. 



