strength is being spent in filling the fruits before the night of the
white death comes.

* * * * *

Since the first of the month the little catkins have been creeping
from the twigs of the hazel, and their tender, spring-like green is
quite as interesting as the ripening bunches of nuts. These little
catkins will hang short and stiff all winter, but when the ice goes
out of the rivers and the first frog croaks in the springtime, they
will lengthen, soften and grow yellow with their abundant pollen.
Squirrels are busy among the acorns and the hickory nuts; the split
husks and shells are thickly strewn beneath the trees. Red-headed
woodpeckers are gathering acorns and pushing them behind the flaky
bark of the wild cherry for use during the late fall; sometimes a
little family of the redheads remains all winter. Chipmunks are
carrying acorns to their granaries; they dash into their holes with a
squeak as if in derision at your slow-footed manner of walking.

* * * * *

Sumac flames from the fence corners and lights up the country lanes.
It is the first of the shrubs to announce in fiery placards the coming
spectacle of the passing of the summer. Next is the Virginia
creeper,--see where it flames up the wild cherry tree, scattering
crimson leaves to the grass beneath. Once in a day's journey along the
creek one may find a small red maple. In the middle of its foliage is
a small, flame-like spot which grows larger day by day. Gradually some
of the other maples catch the color fire, first a little soft maple by
the shore of a muddy bayou, next a small sugar maple on the rocky