OCTOBER. 247 



of some lively hue ; and every shrub and every leafy 

 herb presents the appearance of a scattered variety of 

 bouquets, wreaths, and floral embroidery. It would seem 

 as if the wood-nymphs, while fleeing from northern 

 gales, in quest of summer groves, had left their robes 

 upon the beds of the flowers, to protect them from the 

 blasts of winter. The farms in the lowlands exhibit 

 wide fields of intermingled orange and russet, and the 

 shrubs of different colors that spring up among them in 

 tufts and knolls, add to the spectacle an endless variety 

 of splendor. The creeping herbs and trailing vines, 

 some of which are still begemmed with fruit, exhibit 

 the same variety of tinting, as if designed for wreaths to 

 garland the gray rocks, and to yield a smile to the face 

 of nature, that shall make glad the heart of the solitary 

 rambler, who is ready to weep over the fair objects that 

 have fled. 



Day and night have, at length, about equally divided 

 the light and the darkness. The time of the latter 

 harvest is nearly past, and the winter fruits are mostly 

 gathered and stored into barns. The mornings and 

 evenings are cool and cheerless, and the west wind has 

 grown harsh and uncomfortable. The bland weather 

 of early autumn is rapidly gliding from our year. Night 

 is continually encroaching upon the dominion of day. 

 The white frosts already glitter in the arbors of the 

 summer dews, and the cold north wind is whistling 

 rudely in the haunts of the sweet summer zephyrs. 

 The scents of fading leaves, and of the ripened har- 

 vest, have driven out the delicate incense of the flow- 

 ers, whose fragrant offerings have all ascended to 

 heaven. Dark threatening clouds occasionally frown 

 upon us, as they gather for a few hours about the hori- 

 zon, the melancholy omens of the coming of winter. 



