The Fall of the Leaf 235 



spring are already thrusting them from their places. 

 On many kinds of trees the new buds can be plainly 

 seen as soon as they are disembarrassed of the old 

 leaves ; but it is true of all that they thrust the 

 old leaves away by the development of their own 

 more vigorous life, and that the storms and frosts 

 of autumn are no more than their auxiliaries. 

 The falling of the leaf, in spite of all its accessories 

 of ruin and decay, is the first event of spring. The 

 more deeply the life of the English seasons is studied, 

 the more plainly it is seen how there is no dead 

 low-water mark between one year and the next. 

 In spring and summer the tide may seem indeed 

 to be strongly rising, and in autumn and winter to 

 ebb ; but the forces of growth and decay are always 

 at work side by side. Long before the hazel- 

 covers of April are breaking into leaf, the snowdrops 

 among their mossy roots have already passed their 

 own time of flowering, and have sunk once more 

 into rest. It is the leafing of the beeches and ashes 

 in the bluebell-wood which cuts off the vivifying 

 sunlight from the rich flower carpet beneath their 

 boughs, and thus ends spring for the flowers at the 

 time when the leaves aloft first feel it. So, too, the 

 visible decay of autumn is underlain on all sides 

 by processes of reconstruction and growth. Through 

 the tumultuous darkness of the October night the 

 groaning elms fling free the ruin of their summer 

 verdure and shake bared arms against the flying 

 moon. But before morning comes, already the 

 worms and the rain are mingling the leaves with the 

 mould, which their substance thus enriches for 



