NUT-TREES. 
317 
so frequent, and the butternuts in tliis immediate neighborhood 
are rare ; in some parts of tlie county they abound. Beech-nuts 
are plenty. Hazel-nuts are rare, and our hickory-nuts are not as 
good as " Thiskytoms" should be. Still, all things with kernels are 
" nuts" to boys, and the young rogues make furious attacks upon 
all the chestnut, Avalnut, and hickory trees in the neighborhood ; 
they have already stripped the walnut-trees about the village of 
all their leaves ; these are disposed to fall early, but the boys 
beat the branches so unmercifully that they become quite bare as 
soon as the fruit is ripe. 
A large part}^ of pretty little wrens were feeding on the haws 
of an old thorn-tree by the road-side. Perhaps they were winter 
wrens, which are found in this State, and remain here through 
the year. We do not remember, however, to have ever seen a 
wren in this county, during our coldest months. 
Thursday, 5th. — The woods are very fine, under the cloudy 
sky, to-day. Scarlet, crimson, pink, and dark red increasing 
rapidly — gaining upon the yellows. So much the better ; seasons 
where yellow prevails are far from being our finest autumns. The 
more crimson and scarlet we have to blend with the orange and 
straw colors, the gayer we are. Still, this seems rather a yellow 
year ; for the elms and hickories — which often wither and tu.rn 
brown, without much beauty — are very handsome just now, in 
clear shades of yellow, fluttering in the breeze like gold-leaf; 
while the chestnuts, birches, wych-hazel, and many maples, as 
usual, wear the same colors. Although there aj-e certain general 
rules regarding the coloring of the trees, still they vary with 
diff'erent seasons ; some which were red last year may be yellow 
