ed was the autumnal foliage of its woods, that the
simile of the shawl was by no means too high-colored for the reality.
In the lower ground, between Tanglewood and the lake, the clumps of
trees and borders of woodland were chiefly golden-leaved or dusky
brown, as having suffered more from frost than the foliage on the
hill-sides.

Over all this scene there was a genial sunshine, intermingled with a
slight haze, which made it unspeakably soft and tender. Oh, what a day
of Indian summer was it going to be! The children snatched their
baskets, and set forth, with hop, skip, and jump, and all sorts of
frisks and gambols; while Cousin Eustace proved his fitness to preside
over the party, by outdoing all their antics, and performing several
new capers, which none of them could ever hope to imitate. Behind went
a good old dog, whose name was Ben. He was one of the most respectable
and kind-hearted of quadrupeds, and probably felt it to be his duty
not to trust the children away from their parents without some better
guardian than this feather-brained Eustace Bright.

[Illustration]

THE GOLDEN TOUCH

[Illustration]

SHADOW BROOK

INTRODUCTORY TO THE GOLDEN TOUCH

At noon, our juvenile party assembled in a dell, through the depths of
which ran a little brook. The dell was narrow, and its steep sides,
from the margin of the stream upward, were thickly set with trees,
chiefly walnuts and chestnuts, among which grew a few oaks and maples.
In the summer time, the shade of so many clustering branches, meeting
and intermingling across the rivulet, was deep enough to produce a
noontide twilight. Hence came the name of Shadow Brook. But now, ever
since autumn had crept into this secluded place, all the dark verdure
was changed to gold, so that it really kindled up the dell, instead of
shading it. The bright yellow leaves, even had it been a cloudy day,
would have seemed to keep the sunlight among them; and enough of them
had fallen to strew all the bed and margin of the brook with sunlight,
too. Thus the shady nook, where summer had cooled herself, was now
the sunniest spot anywhere to be found.

The little brook ran along over its pathway of gold, here pausing to
form a pool, in which minnows were darting to and fro; and then it
hurried onward at a swifter pace, as if in haste to reach the lake;
and, forgetting to look whither it went, it tumbled over the root of a
tree, which stretched quite across its current. Yo