BY THE STUDY FIRE 165 



the western sky. Not long ago it was clothed 

 in the glory of great orange and yellow leaves. 

 They withstood the gales and rainstorms of 

 October, but suddenly, on a still November 

 night, they all fell together, for no apparent 

 reason, and in the morning they were piled 

 knee-deep on the grass covering the roots. 

 That was the first indication this year of the 

 coming of the time of suspended animation 

 for fishermen who are not in the full vigour of 

 youth. It was a warm, still day, and the tree's 

 discarded raiment showed up gloriously, gold, 

 orange and scarlet, in the sunshine. Next day 

 began a series of little blizzards with a powder- 

 ing of snow, followed by damp, grey days ; 

 all the leaves have long been swept away to 

 rot and to produce leaf-mould, wherein other 

 plants will some day prosper. It seems a long 

 time until the sticky brown buds at the ends 

 of the twigs of that tree will burst in response 

 to the warm sunshine of spring and to the 

 pressure within of great pale green leaves and 

 columns of pink blossom. Botanists tell us 

 that those brown, sticky bud-cases contain the 

 leaves already formed in miniature, and even 

 tiny columns of pale pink florets. Hitherto I 

 have been content to take on trust, based upon 

 the experience of former years, the certainty 



