104 PASTORAL DAYS. 



approach ; but their wariness is gratuitous, for a tell-tale vine is creeping 

 away upon the fence near-by, and has stopped to rest its golden burden on 

 the summit of the wall, half hiding among the scarlet creepers. 



Here yellow brakes abound, spreading their broad, triangular fronds on 

 every side amid the brilliant berries of wild-rose, and pink leaves of blue- 

 berry. And here are thickets of black-alder, where every twig is studded 

 with scarlet beads, that cling so close that even winter's bluster cannot 

 shake them off. No matter where we look in these October clays, nature 

 is burning itself away in a blaze of color that dazzles the eyes ; and now 

 we approach its very crowning touch. 



I wish every one might see this gorgeous combination of oak and 

 maples ; see it and go no farther, for a further search were fruitless in 

 finding its equal. It is the pride of the entire community ; towns-people 

 and visitors ride from miles around to see its final flush — a magnificent 

 climax in the way of concentration of vivid color, in which nature seems 

 to have grouped with distinct purpose and design, producing a jDiece 

 of natural landscape-gardening such as no art could have approached. 

 The background is a massive precipice of rock towering to the height 

 of eighty feet, itself a perfect medley of tone. 



The group is composed of eight maples, each a distinct contrast of 

 pure color. In their midst a superb large oak presents one massive 

 breadth of deep purple green ; and spreading up one side like a flood of 

 yellow light, a rock-maple lifts its splendid array of foliage. These two 

 trees concentrate the effect, and the others are arranged around them like 

 colors on a palette : one is a flaming scarlet, another beside it is always a 

 rich green, even to the falling leaf — with only a single branch, that every 

 year, even as early as August, persists in turning to a peculiar salmon 

 pink ; another, a red-maple, is so deep a red as to appear almost maroon, 

 and its branches intermingle with the pale-pink verdure of another grow- 

 ing by its side. There is one that combines every intermediate color, 

 from deep crimson to the palest saffron ; while its neighbor flutters in the 

 wind with every leaf a brilliant butterfly of pure green, with spots and 

 splashes of deep carmine. 



This whole assemblage of color fairly blazes in the landscape, and 

 even from the top of Mount Pisgah, a half a mile away, it looks like a 

 glowing coal dropped down upon a bed of smouldering ashes in the 

 valley ; for the surrounding meadow is thick-set with great gray rocks 

 and crimson viburnum, as though it had caught fire from the flaming 



