282 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



of cheer. The passing months have been 

 freighted with growth and beauty and fruit, the 

 season's ends have been accomplished, the flow- 

 ers are plucked, the fruit is garnered, the 

 leaves are shredded and all nature is placid and 

 pleased because so much has been done and so 

 well done. The beginnings of the vegetable 

 world, in March and April, are enrapturing, 

 the endings in October are most cheerful. In 

 spring a bit of arbutus, a few hepaticas are 

 prized for their sweetness and shyness, but in 

 the autumn we gather arms full of golden rod 

 and aster and dress chimney piece and side- 

 board, making our rooms as gay as the fields. 



Beautiful October! How by mystic spells 

 she comes halting between summer and winter; 

 some of her days are roughly ruled by nor'- 

 westers and are full of storm and wintry hints 

 and mayhap the very next day all the rich gen- 

 iality of summer's wealth generously poured 

 out over the wide landscape. October seems 

 in love with winter and summer both ; she woos 

 both ways ; backward and forward. Her back- 

 ward is as genial as "summer evenings be"; 

 her frontward look invites the biting frosts and 

 cheerless days with leaden skies. In all this 

 she is only tempering nature and toughening 

 the race for the winter's coming cold. Her 



