WOODS PREPARING FOR WINTER 209 
them; they are the remnants of a once numerous 
and prosperous race, and when they perish there 
will be no monument but this passing notice to 
indicate that they once were .—Natural History of 
Deeside , p. 239. 
33. —Home. 
But it is now getting toward six o’clock, and, 
as my resting-place is a good way off, it is time to 
proceed. AVhen I ascended the valley of the Dee, 
in the end of July, the woods rejoiced in the warm 
breezes, and spread their green foliage to the sun. 
Now, in the middle of September, they seem 
preparing for the winter; their discoloured and 
sapless leaves, smitten by the night-frosts and 
seared by the drought, show no gladness, but speak 
of decay—beautiful in its gradations, like the 
passage of the aged Christian to the grave, and 
very pleasing to the sobered and contemplative 
mind. I have this year seen these woods of 
Crathes, when their twigs bore nothing but buds, 
when their tender leaves were unfolding, when 
their foliage covered them as a mantle ; and now, 
in passing, I observe them streaked and patched 
with the yellow tints of autumn. Winter will again 
strip them of all their vesture ; but they “ will hear 
the voice of spring and flourish green again.” So 
shall we, whose life is Christ. 
An easterly wind, not cold and penetrating, 
brings up the clouds successively from the Celtic 
o 
