THE LATE SUMMER FLOWERS. 241 
that somewhere in the autumn, after the leaves have 
fallen, there comes a delightful time, longer or shorter, 
when 
“Falls not hail or rain or any snow, 
Nor ever wind blows loudly,” 
which is known as the Indian Summer. 
The Indian and the primeval forest through which 
he roamed on his hunting expeditions have both disap- 
peared; and with them has gone, blown away like them 
before the chilling breath of civilization, and like them 
nevermore to return, that charming season upon the 
beauties of which so many poets and prose writers have 
loved to dwell. It was a belief of the Indian that the 
Great Spirit sent this mild season in the late autumn for 
the especial benefit of his red children; and when the 
great fall hunt was over and the floor of the wigwam 
was covered with the spoils of the forest chase, a season 
of festivity followed suggestive of modern harvest festi- 
vals. 
But there is no myth about the beauty of these 
late summer days. The glory of the year is wrapped 
up in them. They call to mind the picture of the fair- 
tressed Pallas Athené as she 
“Rose, like a pillar of tall white cloud, toward silver 
Olympus : 
31 
