NOVEMBER 



On the side of the meadow moraine, just north 

 of the boulder field, I see barberry bushes three 

 inches in diameter and ten feet high. What a 

 surprising color this wood has. It splits and splin- 

 ters very much when I bend it. I cut a cane, and, 

 shaving off the outer bark, find it of imperial yel- 

 low, as if painted, fit for a Chinese mandarin. 

 THOKEAU: Early Spring in Massachusetts. 



IO 



In a stubble field started up a bevy (about 

 twenty) of quail which went off to some young 

 pitch pines with a whir like a shot, the plump 

 round birds. 



THOREAU: Early Spring in Massachusetts. 



The muskrat houses appear now, for the most 

 part, to be finished, though some are still rising. 

 They line the river all the way. Some are as big 



as small haycocks. 



THOREAU: Autumn. 



