s
we scarce knew what. Horses pushed out of the fog with the most sudden
effect, followed by their wagons, and disappeared again in the
opposite fleecy barrier; pedestrians were first seen like spectres,
then their whole shapes were exhibited, and finally they melted slowly
away again, whilst old Shadbolt's cow, grazing along the grassy margin
of the street, loomed up through the vapor almost as large as an
elephant.

About noon the scene became clearer, so that the outline of the
village houses, and even the checkered splendors of the neighboring
woods could be seen; so much of Nate's sign, "Hammond's sto--" became
visible, and even Hamble's great red stage-coach was exhibited,
thrusting its tongue out as if in scorn of the weather.

In the afternoon, however, the mist thickened again, and the whole
village shrunk again within it, like a turtle within its shell. The
next morning dawned without its misty mask, but with it rose a gusty
wind that commenced howling like a famished wolf. Alas! for the
glories of the woods! As the rude gusts rushed from the slaty clouds,
the rich leaves came fluttering upon them, blotting the air and
falling on the earth thick as snow-flakes. Now a maple-leaf, like a
scalloped ruby, would fly whirling over and over; next a birch one
would flash across the sight, as if a topaz had acquired wings; and
then a shred of the oak's imperial mantle, flushed like a sardonyx,
would cut a few convulsive capers in the air, like a clown in a
circus, and dash itself headlong upon the earth. Altogether it was an
exciting time, this fall of the leaf. Ah! a voice also was constantly
whispering in my ear, "we all do fade as the leaf!"

I took a walk in the woods. What a commotion was there! The leaves
were absolutely frantic. Now they would sweep up far into the air as
if they never intended to descend again, and then taking curvatures,
would skim away like birds; others would cluster together, and then
roll along like a great quivering billow; others again would circle
around in eddies like whirlpools, soaring up now and then in the
likeness of a water-spout, whilst frequently tall columns would march
down the broad aisles of the forest in the most majestic manner, and
finally fall to pieces in a violent spasm of whirling atoms. Even
after the leaves had found their way to the earth they were by no
means quiet. Some skipped uneasily over the surface; some stood on one
leg, as it were, and pirouetted; som