Martinmas Summer 375 
sometimes coax a number of dandelions into bloom. 
The little blunderers will probably be overlooked, 
for we are apt to observe the things we expect to 
find and to miss those we are not looking for, and 
we certainly are not looking for October dandelions. 
There they are, however, gladdening the roadsides 
in many places. Let us hope that they will 
have time to set their seed and float it away to 
pastures new on gauzy parachutes before winter 
comes swooping down out of the North. 
Violets, too, blossom sparingly in late fall sun- 
shine. In golden Indian-summer weather one may 
gather them as late as Thanksgiving. Wild straw- 
berries sometimes bloom quite luxuriantly in Sep- 
tember or October. Here and there a willow pussy 
thrusts its furry foolish head above the bud-scales, 
which should have screened it till the spring, and 
in sheltered garden spots the early-flowering 
shrubs, especially the pyrus japonica and _bridal- 
wreath, put forth a few fall-blossoms. 
Some hardy weeds are so eager to seize upon 
every opportunity afforded by the chances and 
changes of our climate, that a few days of mildness 
and sunshine, in the heart of winter, will coax them 
into bloom. 
There is no month in the year in which one may 
