i 4 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



beneath the decaying bark, and the single bees, such as 

 Andrena rufa, bury their eggs deep in the ground. The 

 closer you look into the events of autumn the more you see 

 how active life is. Energy revives, as in some people who, 

 it is well said, enjoy their 'second spring,' their 'green old 

 age.' Even the leaves are thrust off by an act of energy. 

 They do not fall, as it were, helplessly, but are sucked dry 



'WEAK FLYERS LIKE THE CORNCRAKE' 



by vigorous action and then tossed away to nourish the 

 roots. 



What gorgeous months the autumn shows. We could 

 spare no months more reluctantly than September and 

 October ; except for the sense of anticipation the days in 

 many qualities besides their length are the days of late 

 March ; and if autumn is spring, it is, in popular idiom, also 

 summer. Our * Indian summer' when it comes, as it usually 

 comes, is one of the greatest oases of the year, for it comes 

 when the joy of the year seems to have disappeared. The 

 blue and misty air, the soft warmth, the almost springlike feel- 

 ing, make those late autumn days in America as memorable as 



