NOVEMBER 



25 



The forest floor is covered with a thick coat of 

 moist brown leaves, but what is that perennial and 

 spring-like verdure that clothes the rocks, of small 

 green plumes pointing various ways ? It is the 

 cheerful community of the polypody. It survives 

 at least as the type of vegetation, to remind us of 

 the spring which shall not fail. These are the 

 green pastures where I browse now. Why is not 

 this form copied by our sculptors instead of the 

 foreign acanthus leaves and bays ? How fit for a 

 tuft about the base of a column 1 



THOBEAU: Autumn. 



26 



The muskrats are more active since the cold 

 weather. I see more of them about the river now, 

 swimming across back and forth, and diving in 

 the middle where I lose them. They dive off the 

 round-backed black mossy stones, which when small 

 and slightly exposed look much like themselves. 

 In swimming, show commonly three parts, with 

 water between. One, sitting in the sun, as if for 

 warmth, on the opposite shore to me, looks quite 

 reddish-brown. They avail themselves of the edge 

 of the ice now found along the sides of the river, 



to feed on. 



THOREAU: Autumn. 



