coach; and out stepped a
young dame, delicate, proud, and pretty. IT WAS MISTRESS JUNE. In her
service people become lazy and fond of sleeping for hours. She gives
a feast on the longest day of the year, that there may be time for her
guests to partake of the numerous dishes at her table. Indeed, she keeps
her own carriage, but still she travels by the mail-coach with the rest
because she wishes to show that she is not proud.

But she was not without a protector; her younger brother, JULY, was with
her. He was a plump, young fellow, clad in summer garments, and wearing
a straw hat. He had very little luggage because it was so cumbersome in
the great heat. He had, however, swimming-trousers with him, which are
nothing to carry.

Then came the mother herself, MADAME AUGUST, a wholesale dealer
in fruit, proprietress of a large number of fish-ponds, and a
land-cultivator. She was fat and warm, yet she could use her hands well,
and would herself carry out food to the laborers in the field. After
work, came the recreations, dancing and playing in the greenwood, and
the "harvest home." She was a thorough housewife.

After her a man stepped out of the coach. He is a painter, a master of
colors, and is NAMED SEPTEMBER. The forest on his arrival has to change
its colors, and how beautiful are those he chooses! The woods glow with
red, and gold, and brown. This great master painter can whistle like a
blackbird. There he stood with his color-pot in his hand, and that was
the whole of his luggage.

A landowner followed, who in the month for sowing seed attends to his
ploughing and is fond of field sports. SQUIRE OCTOBER brought his dog
and his gun with him, and had nuts in his game-bag.

"Crack! Crack!" He had a great deal of luggage, even a plough. He spoke
of farming, but what he said could scarcely be heard for the coughing
and sneezing of his neighbor.

It WAS NOVEMBER, who coughed violently as he got out. He had a cold, but
he said he thought it would leave him when he went out woodcutting, for
he had to supply wood to the whole parish. He spent his evenings making
skates, for he knew, he said, that in a few weeks they would be needed.

At length the last passenger made her appearance,--OLD MOTHER DECEMBER!
The dame was very aged, but her eyes glistened like two stars. She
carried on her arm a flower-pot, in which a little fir tree was growing.
"This tree I shall guard and cherish," she said, "that it may grow large
by