
SADNESS. 
DEAD LEAVES. 
As winter advances, the trees lose their ver- 
dure, after being despoiled of their fruits. The 
“fall of the leaf” is a pleasing period to all 
who love the study of nature, and seek to 
derive profit therefrom. James Montgomery 
has sung the falling leaf, and the lines contain 
sentiments so just that we introduce them here 
for the delight of our readers. 
Were I a trembling leaf 
On yonder stately tree, 
After a season, gay and brief, 
Condemned to fade and flee ; 
I should be loth to fall 
Beside the common way, 
Weltering in mire, and spurn’d by all 
Till trodden down to clay. 
Nor would I choose to die 
All on a bed of grass; 
Where thousands of my kindred lie 
And idly rot in mass. 
Nor would I like to spread 
My thin and wither’d face, 
In hortus siceus, pale and dead, 
A mummy of my race. 

















































