SEPTEMBER 



And sweet it is by lonely meres 

 To sit, with heart and soul awake, 

 Where water-lilies lie afloat, 

 Each anchored like a fairy boat 

 Amid some fabled elfin lake : 

 To see the birds flit to and fro 

 Along the dark-green reedy edge. 



MARY HOWITT. 



SEPTEMBER is a much-abused month. Many 

 people assert that it is the most unpleasant 

 and unhealthy season of the year. 



Malarial and muggy though it is, September 

 scarcely merits all the evil epithets that are 

 applied to it. The truth is that, after the 

 torrid days of the hot weather and the humid 

 heat of the rainy season, the European is 

 thoroughly weary of his tropical surroundings, 

 his vitality is at a low ebb, he is languid and 

 irritable, thus he complains bitterly of the 

 climate of September, notwithstanding the 

 fact that it is a distinct improvement on that 

 of the two preceding months. 



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