uld pierce the armor of proof with which he had provided her?

If the spring had been late, the autumn was early.

One fine warm summer evening it suddenly began to rain. The next day it
was still raining; and it poured incessantly, growing ever colder and
colder, for eleven days and nights on end. At last it cleared up; but
the next night there were four degrees of frost. [Note: Reaumur.]

On the bushes and trees the leaves hung glued together after the long
rain; and when the frost had dried them after its fashion, they fell to
the ground in multitudes at every little puff of wind.

The Pastor's tenant was one of the few that had got their corn in; and
now it had to be threshed while there was water for the machine. The
little brook in the valley rushed foaming along, as brown as coffee,
and all the men on the farm were taken up with tending the machine and
carting corn and straw up and down the Parsonage hill.

The farm-yard was bestrewn with straw, and when the wind swirled in
between the houses it seized the oat-straws by the head, raised them
on end, and set them dancing along like yellow spectres. It was the
juvenile autumn wind trying its strength; not until well on in the
winter, when it has full-grown lungs, does it take to playing with tiles
and chimney-pots.

A sparrow sat crouched together upon the dog-kennel; it drew its head
down among its feathers, blinked its eyes, and betrayed no interest
in anything. But in reality it noted carefully where the corn was
deposited. In the great sparrow-battle of the spring it had been in the
very centre of the ball, and had pecked and screamed with the best of
them. But it had sobered down since then; it thought of its wife and
children, and reflected how good it was to have something in reserve
against the winter.--Ansgarius looked forward to the winter--to
perilous expeditions through the snow-drifts and pitch-dark evenings
with thundering breakers. He already turned to account the ice which lay
on the puddles after the frosty nights, by making all his tin soldiers,
with two brass cannons, march out upon it. Stationed upon an overturned
bucket, he watched the ice giving way, little by little, until the whole
army was immersed, and only the wheels of the cannons remained visible.
Then he shouted, "Hurrah!" and swung his cap.

"What are you shouting about?" asked the Pastor, who happened to pass
through the farm-yard.

"I'm playing at Austerlitz!" answered Ans