THE SEED HARVEST OF RATTLESNAKE 

 HILL. 



There were ten of us, and the day was Saturday, 

 the 14th of October, the fairest of this wonderful 

 month. We went by way of the park at the foot of the 

 pond, because that ascent is the most gradual. We 

 passed by the foundation of the new school-house on 

 the site of the old Rumford garrison, and in going 

 through the woods by the brookside somebody discov- 

 ered the celluloid-red berries of the spice-bush. This 

 was a find indeed, for the shrub is rare about town, and 

 but one of our party had ever seen the tiny, honey-yel- 

 low flowers which come the last of March. It was Mrs. 

 E. who braved the discomforts of the melting snow last 

 spring, and brought home from this very spot leafless 

 branches with their whorls of flower buds. While we 

 were gathering the spice berries a flock of goldfinches 

 in autumn coloring settled near by. There was not 

 a trace of yellow in their dress, but the warm brown 

 of their coats and the black and white of their wing 

 bars gave them a jaunty appearance. 



In gathering the vari-colored leaves with which the 

 woods abounded the youngest of our party found a 

 spray of the maple-leaved viburnum with a terminal 

 10 



