iHotoers antj ITrufts of Autumn. 307 



Along the road-side the elder-berry's cymes have 

 been transformed to clusters of shining black 

 berries, and ripe scarlet fruit shines through the 

 tarnished foliage of the thorns. 



The asters are swarming with bumble-bees 

 and butterflies the small white and yellow but- 

 terflies and the larger orange-blacks, all busily 

 extracting a " last taste of sweets." I did not 

 know the latter was ever so late an arrival, or 

 that his chrysalis so resembles a Japanese 

 watch-charm. I found two belated chrysalides 

 on the raspberry-vines. The color of the en- 

 velope was dark bronze. Near one extremity 

 were two burnished silver knobs ; near the oth- 

 er, a necklace of raised, shining gold and enam- 

 eled beads. Underneath the semi-transparent 

 envelope the folds of the orange wings showed. 

 I found the thin husks rent in twain the follow- 

 ing morning in the glass in which they were 

 placed, the two perfected insects struggling to 

 escape from their narrow confinement. Brief will 

 be their holiday in the slant autumnal sunshine, 

 and " too late " the burden borne to them by the 

 rustling breeze. Last year there was a storm of 

 these brilliant insects in a neighboring grove, where 

 they settled so numerously as to weigh down the 

 lesser limbs. The year previous, a similar oc- 

 currence was noticed along the lake-shore. 



