70 THE FALL OF THE YEAR 



no doubt, before there is plenty again ; there will be 

 suffering and death. But what with the building, 

 the strange deep sleeping, and the harvesting, there 

 will be also much comfortable, much joyous and 

 sociable, living. 



Long before the muskrats began to build, even 

 before the swallows commenced to flock, my chip- 

 munks started their win- 

 ter stores. I don't know 



which began his work 

 first, which kept harder 

 Chipmunk or the provident ant. 

 The ant has a great reputation for thrift, and verses 

 have been written about her. But Chipmunk is just 

 as thrifty. So is the busy bee. 



It is the thought of approaching winter that keeps 

 the bee busy far beyond her summer needs. Much 

 of her labor is entirely for the winter. By the first 

 of August she has filled the brood chamber of the 

 hive with honey — forty pounds of it, enough for 

 the hatching bees and for the whole colony until the 

 willows tassel again. But who knows what the winter 

 may be? how cold and long drawn out into the 

 coming May ? So the harvesting is pushed with vigor 

 on, until the frosts kill the last of the autumn asters 

 — on, until fifty, a hundred, or even three hundred 

 pounds of honey are sealed in the combs, and the 

 colony is safe should the sun not shine again for a 

 year and a day. 



