when the wind shook the leaves down. There was a fruity
odour of persimmon and wild grape forever in the air. The salmon-pink
globes stood defined against the blue on leafless twigs, while the frost
sweetened them to sugary jelly, and the black wild grape by the
water-courses yielded an odour that was only less material than the
flavour of its juices. Every angle of the rail fences became a parterre
with golden-rod, cat-brier, and the red-and-yellow pied leaves of
blackberries, while a fringe of purple and white asters thrust fragile
fingers through the rails below, or the stout iron-weed pushed its
purple-red blooms into view at the head of tall, lance-like stems.

Judith walking in the woods one day found a great nest of Indian pipe.
She bent listlessly to pick the waxen mystic blossoms, thinking to
herself that they were like some beautiful dead thing; and then she came
upon a delicate flush on the side of their clear, translucent pearl, and
wondered if it were an omen.

It was a gorgeous October Sabbath when the boys were baptised. Baptisms
always took place from Brush Arbour in a sizable pool of Lost Creek which
flows through one corner of the little valley that holds the church
building. The sward which ran down to its clear mirror was yet green, but
the maples and sourwoods above it were coloured splendidly. Among their
clamant red and yellow laurel and rhododendron showed glossy green, and
added to the gay tapestry. The painted leaves let go their hold on twig
or bough and dropped whispering into the water, like garlands flung to
dress the coming rite.

Morning meeting was over. The women-folks who had come far spread dinner
on the grass near the church, joining together occasionally, the children
wandering about in solemn delight with a piece of corn pone in hand,
whispering among the graves in the tiny God's acre, spelling out the
words upon some wooden head-board, or the rarer stone.

The Big Spring was the customary gathering place of the young people
before church, and during intermissions, about its clear basin, on the
slopes above the great rock from under which it issued, might be seen a
number of couples, the boys in Sunday best of jeans or store-bought
clothing, the girls fluttering in cheap lawns or calicoes, and wearing
generally hats instead of the more becoming sunbonnet. Judith had been
used to lead her following here, and the number of her swains would have
been a scandal in any one else: but