JUST BEFORE WINTER. 159 
Two York roses flower on the hedge : altogether, twenty- 
six flowers, a large bouquet for October 19, gathered, 
too, in a hilly country. 
Besides these, note the broad hedge-parsley leaves, 
tunnelled by leaf-miners ; bright masses of haws gleam- 
ing in the sun; scarlet hips; great brown cones fallen 
from the spruce firs; black heart-shaped bindweed 
leaves here, and buff bryony leaves yonder; green and 
scarlet berries of white bryony hanging thickly on bines 
from which the Icaves have withered ; and bunches of 
grass, half yellow and half green, along the mound. Now 
that the leaves have been brushed from the beech 
saplings you may see how the leading stem rises in a 
curious wavy line ; some of the leaves lie at the foot, 
washed in white dew, that stays in the shade all day ; 
the wetness of the dew makes the brownish red of the 
leaf show clear and bright. One leaf falls in the still- 
ness of the air slowly, as if let down by a cord of 
gossamer gently, and not as a stone falls—fate delayed 
to the last. A moth adheres to a bough, his wings half 
open, like a short brown cloak flung over his shoulders. 
Pointed leaves, some drooping, some horizontal, some 
fluttering slightly, still stay on the tall willow wands, 
like bannerets on the knights’ lances, much torn in the 
late battle of the winds. There is a shower from a clear 
sky under the trees in the forest ; brown acorns rattling 
as they fall, and rich coloured Spanish chestnuts thump- 
ing the sward, and sometimes striking you as you pass 
under ; they lie on the ground in pocketfuls. Specks of 
brilliant scarlet dot the grass like some bright berries 
blown from the bushes; but on stooping to pick them, 
they are found to be the heads of a fungus. Near by 
lies a black magpie’s feather, spotted with round dots of 
white, 
