morning
of spring beyond. The rest of the tribe try gypsying for a while, but
perish in the first frosts. The present October I surprised the queen
of the yellow-jackets in the woods looking out a suitable retreat. The
royal dame was house-hunting, and, on being disturbed by my
inquisitive poking among the leaves, she got up and flew away with a
slow, deep hum. Her body was unusually distended, whether with fat or
eggs I am unable to say. In September I took down the nest of the
black hornet and found several large queens in it, but the workers
had all gone. The queens were evidently weathering the first frosts
and storms here, and waiting for the Indian summer to go forth and
seek a permanent winter abode. If the covers could be taken off the
fields and woods at this season, how many interesting facts of natural
history would be revealed!--the crickets, ants, bees, reptiles,
animals, and, for aught I know, the spiders and flies asleep or
getting ready to sleep in their winter dormitories; the fires of life
banked up, and burning just enough to keep the spark over till spring.

The fish all run down the stream in the fall except the trout; it runs
up or stays up and spawns in November, the male becoming as
brilliantly tinted as the deepest-dyed maple leaf. I have often
wondered why the trout spawns in the fall, instead of in the spring
like other fish. Is it not because a full supply of clear spring water
can be counted on at that season more than at any other? The brooks
are not so liable to be suddenly muddied by heavy showers, and defiled
with the washings of the roads and fields, as they are in spring and
summer. The artificial breeder finds that absolute purity of water is
necessary to hatch the spawn; also that shade and a low temperature
are indispensable.

Our Northern November day itself is like spring water. It is melted
frost, dissolved snow. There is a chill in it and an exhilaration
also. The forenoon is all morning and the afternoon all evening. The
shadows seem to come forth and to revenge themselves upon the day. The
sunlight is diluted with darkness. The colors fade from the landscape,
and only the sheen of the river lights up the gray and brown distance.

VIII

A SHARP LOOKOUT

One has only to sit down in the woods or fields, or by the shore of
the river or lake, and nearly everything of interest will come round
to him,--the bi