NOVEMBER 



The beech leaves have all fallen except some 

 about the lower part of the trees, and they make a 

 fine thick bed on the ground. They are very beau- 

 tiful, fine and perfect leaves, unspotted, not eaten 

 by insects, of a handsome, clear leather color, like 

 a book bound in calf, crisp and elastic. They cover 

 the ground so perfectly and cleanly as to tempt 

 you to recline on it, and admire the beauty of 

 the smooth boles from that position, covered with 

 lichens of various colors, green, etc. 



THOREAU: Autumn. 



8 



See this great fleet of scattered leaf-boats which 

 we paddle amid, in this smooth river-bay, each one 

 curled up on every side by the sun's skill, each 

 nerve a stiff spruce-knee, like boats of hide, 

 and of all patterns, Charon's boat probably among 

 the rest, and some with lofty prows and poops, 

 like the stately vessels of the ancients, scarcely 

 moving in the sluggish current, like the great 

 fleets, the dense Chinese cities of boats, with 

 which you mingle on entering some great mart, 

 some New York or Canton, which we are all 

 steadily approaching together. 



THOREAU: Autumnal Tints. 



