338 Jlugust in Prospect. 
But the autumnal rains may be expected soon to set in, when 
should the state of the atmosphere be favorable to vegetation, the 
late parched meadows and fields will again assume freshness 
and lively green, almost equaling the appearance of spring; but 
the leafy groves never regain their original verdure and beauty, 
although the ripening fruit in the orchards and gardens presents 
a pleasing and enticing aspect, an aspect which many persons, 
no doubt, greatly prefer to the lovely blossoms of promise of May 
and June. 
The time of the early harvest has also commenced. The 
reaper has cast in his cradle, and the rye and wheat has been 
gathered into the barns. It is a season of joy to the laborious 
husbandman. He is now beginning to realize the hopes of 
spring, and to gather in his stores for approaching winter. He 
is now receiving the reward of his industry. This month is the 
great maturer of the summer crops; for though some of the later 
ones, particularly in bleak and elevated situations, may when the 
month closes, be still unfit for gathering in — by this advanced 
period of the season the hopes or the fears of the husbandman 
begin to be proved and realized. The crops of hay, excepting in 
particular localities, and under extraordinary circumstances, will 
have been stowed away in the barn or stack; and taking the 
seasons in general, the grain harvest will every where be drawing 
towards a conclusion, except in those late situations already al- 
luded to. 
While we are gathering into our store houses the rich grain 
and fruit of summer for the sterile season of winter, are we not 
reminded of the importance of seeking food for our intellectual 
and moral nature, that when the goods of earth fail, or cease to 
delight us, we may still have treasures, which " moth and rust 
cannot corrupt," and whence we may derive a spiritual happiness, 
undecaying and endless. 
The peculiar changeableness and uncertainty respecting the 
weather, and " what another day may bring forth," strongly tend 
to render it almost necessary, or at least very desirable, for the 
husbandman to keep some account, some register in his memory or 
