69

Concord, Mass.
1916
August 30
to
November 4

Autumn field notes.
Fine weather
Light rainfall.
First killing frost.

  During the entire period included between those dates
I lived so uninterruptedly at our Concord farm that not
a single night was spent elsewhere. H. W. Henshaw [Henry Wetherbee Henshaw] was
with me from September 2 to October 1. Rarely if ever before
have I known an autumn so uniformly beautiful & serene.
Up to November 1 it had no wholly rainy day and few
dark cloudy ones while not many were too windy or too
chilly to be very enjoyable out-of-doors. Because of the
infrequent rainfall there was little or no surface water to be
found in most of the bushy swamps and grassy meadows
that seldom lack it at any season and the surface
soil throughout all upland woods became dry as tinder.
But as this drought came so late and followed an
exceptionally wet summer it did not cause much
injury to vegetation. Nor were the tenderest plants
in our garden harmed by frost until October 18 [October 18, 1916] when the