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OCTOBER REFLECTIONS ON THE 

 ASSABET 



October 17, 1858. Up Assabet. Methinlcs the 

 reflections are never purer and more distinct than 

 now at the season of the fall of the leaf, just before 

 the cool twilight has come, when the air has a finer 

 grain. Just as our mental reflections are more dis- 

 tinct at this season of the year, when the evenings 

 grow cool and lengthen and our winter evenings 

 with their brighter fires may be said to begin. 



One reason why I associate perfect reflections from 

 still water with this and a later season may be that 

 now, by the fall of the leaves, so much more light 

 is let in to the water. The river reflects more light, 

 therefore, in this twilight of the year, as it were an 

 afterglow. 



Journal, xi, 216, 217. 



SUN-LIGHTED TUFTS OF ANDROPOGON 



October 16, 1859. When we emerged from the 

 pleasant footpath through the birches into Witherell 

 Glade, looking along it toward the westering sun, 

 the glittering white tufts of the Andropogon sco- 

 parius, lit up by the sun, were affectingly fair and 

 cheering to behold, . . . their glowing half raised a 

 foot or more above the ground, a lighter and more 

 brilliant whiteness than the downiest cloud presents. 



