CHAPTER VIII— AUGUST 

 SOBER SUMMER 



THE foliage of summer is generally mature, 

 green, sober. There is a certain warmth 

 and gaiety about the leaf progress of June 

 and early July, and a vast variety in shades, as 

 well, so that any body of trees and shrubs of vary- 

 ing kinds will display anything from the youngest 

 light yellow leaves of the Norway maples to the 

 deep, even green of the horse-chestnuts. Toward 

 the first of August the leaves are quite or nearly 

 full-grown, and they have settled down to their 

 real work of elaborating food for the trees that 

 bear them. 



My water-color friend, Little, finds in this color 

 maturity another confirmation of his theory that 

 there is a sort of color compensation, a chromatic 

 balance, of the seasons. In spring, the air and the 

 ground are cool, though slowly absorbing heat, and 

 the leaves and flowers are warm in hue — ^there 

 are the really hot colors of the tulips, the yellows of 

 some tree blossoms, and so on. As the season 

 warms, the foliage and flower hues become in 



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