CHAPTER XLVI 



NUTTING TIME 



It seems very strange to go to sleep one night in 

 the country, knowing that all the trees' leaves are 

 green, and to wake up in the morning and see that 

 the tops of the maples have turned to scarlet, or 

 yellow, and that the birches, ashes, poplars, and 

 oaks are less green than they were the day before. 

 No one sees how they change their colors, but I 

 think it must be because they have grown ripe like 

 berries, or else because Jack Frost has begun his 

 traveling through the air. 



The Scarlet Maples are the trees that had such 

 beautiful red flowers in early spring. However, 

 since the day this autumn when their tops first 

 changed, they have been growing more red. Sil- 

 ver Maples turn their leaves a bright yellow, which 

 is perhaps because they had yellowish blossoms in 

 the spring instead of red ones. 



Then when all the trees look very beautiful in 

 ever "so many shades of red, and yellow, and light 

 brown. Jack Frost touches them again, and their 

 colors grow dim, and their leaves begin to drop 

 one by one to the ground. The bare twigs stand 

 out by themselves, and the trees look much more 

 dead than they did in the early spring when Grand- 

 mother and I came to live in the country. 



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