402 
RURAL HOURS. 
nut is beginning, to form, the heart slowly becoming a kernel, and 
the small yellow flower-cups turning gradually into the husk. On 
some bushes, these little cups are still yellow and flower-like ; on 
others, they have quite a husky look. It takes these shrubs a 
full year to bring their fruit to maturity. 
The green wheat-fields look vivid and bright lying about the 
gray farms. The lake is deep blue just now ; it seems to be more 
deeply blue in the autumn than at other seasons ; to-day, it is 
many shades darker than the sky, almost as blue as the water in 
Guido's Aurora. 
