XXVII Summer's Afterglow 



THE year fades to its end through a series of calm 

 reflections of summer interspersed in the autumn 

 storms and gloom. Not only the frequency of a 

 spell of bright warm weather about the middle of 

 October, but the new wealth of colour, makes us 

 welcome the approach of St. Luke's Day as a time 

 of promise. The Atlantic cyclones, which regularly 

 break up the calmer weather of September with 

 tumultuous gales and rain, leave intervals of ex- 

 hausted violence in which the sky is swept clear of 

 cloud, and the sun shines on a world unruffled by 

 the lightest air. Such halcyon days are wont to 

 follow the passage of a cyclone in all the stormier 

 months, but at no other season in the winter half 

 of the year is the whole of nature lit up with such a 

 glory of colour on wood and moor, and still decked 

 by such a profusion of rich and splendid blossom. 



On calm days of October sunshine, especially if 

 there have been no frosts severe enough to blacken 

 the garden flowers, nature seems to have gained, 

 not lost, by the passage of summer into autumn. 

 The dull, bronzed monotony of the foliage of late 

 summer has suddenly changed into an infinitely 

 varied display of splendid hues. Walks and leafy 

 corners in garden or woodland, which in late July 

 and August had become almost wearisome to the 



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