OCTOBER. 327 



er and brighter with every new morning, until they are 

 finally seared by the icy breath of November. 



But to the forests we must look to behold the fairest 

 spectacle of the season, now glowing with the infinitely 

 varied and constantly multiplying tints of a summer sun- 

 set. The first changes appear in the low grounds, where 

 vegetation is exposed to the earliest blights, and is prema- 

 turely ripened by the alternation of chill dews and sun- 

 shine. Often in the space of one night the leaves of the 

 trees are metamorphosed into flowers, as if the dewdrops 

 brought with them the hues of the beautiful clouds from 

 which they fell. But Nature, while decorating some trees 

 in one uniform color, scatters over the remainder a gentle 

 sprinkling of every hue. 



It is my delight during this month to ramble in the 

 field and wood, to take note of these changes as they 

 • happen day by day. Each morning witnesses a new 

 aspect in the face of Nature like each passing moment 

 that attends the brightening and fading of the evening 

 sky. The landscape we visited but a few days since is 

 to-day like a different prospect, save in the arrangement 

 of the grounds. Beauty has suddenly awoke upon the 

 face of a dull and homely wood, and variety has sprung 

 up in the midst of tiresome uniformity. There are patches 

 of brightly tinted shrubbery that seem to have risen dur- 

 ing the night from the bed of the earth where yesterday 

 there was but a dull uniform green, and when surrounded 

 by the unfaded grasses, they resemble little flower-plats 

 embosomed in verdure. As the month advances one tree 

 after another partakes of this beautiful transformation. 

 All the shades of red, yellow, and purple are resplendent 

 from different species. It seems as if the departed flowers 

 of summer had revisited the earth, and were wreathing 

 their garlands around the brows of the woods and the 

 mountains. 



