magnificent, lacking, this year,
those garish and discordant hues which Americans think it necessary to
admire. Oak brown and elm yellow, deep chrome bronze and sombre crimson
the hard woods glowed against backgrounds of pine and hemlock. Larches
were mossy cones of feathery gold; birches slim shafts of snowy gray,
ochre-crowned; silver and green the balsams' spires pierced the canopy
of splendid tapestry upborne by ash and oak and towering pine under a
sky of blue so deep and intense that the lakes reflecting it seemed no
less vivid.

Already in the brooks they passed painted trout hung low over every bed
of gravel and white sand; the male trout wore his best scarlet fins, and
his sides glowed in alternate patterns, jewelled with ruby and sapphire
spots. Already the ruffed grouse thundered up by coveys, though they had
not yet packed, for the broods still retained their autonomy.

But somewhere beyond the royal azure of the northern sky, very, very far
away, there was cold in the world, for even last week, through the
violet and primrose dusk, out of the north, shadowy winged things came
speeding, batlike phantoms against the dying light--flight-woodcock
coming through hill-cleft and valley to the land where summer lingered
still.

And there in mid-forest, right in the tall timber, Scott, advancing,
flushed a woodcock, which darted up, filling the forest with twittering
music--the truest music of our eastern autumn, clear, bewildering,
charming in its evanescent sweetness which leaves in its wake a
startling silence.

Ahead, lining both sides of a gully deep with last year's leaves, was an
oak grove in mid-forest. Here the brown earth was usually furrowed by
the black snouts of wild boar, for mast lay thick here in autumn and
tender roots invited investigation.

"Get down flat and crawl," whispered Scott; "there may be a boar or two
on the grounds."

Kathleen, in her pretty white gown of lace and some sheer stuff, looked
at him piteously; but when he and Geraldine dropped flat and wriggled
forward into the wind, misgiving of what might prowl behind seized her,
and she tucked up her skirts and gave herself to the brown earth with a
tremor of indignation and despair.

Nearer and nearer they crept, making very little sound; but they made
enough to rouse a young boar, who jerked his head into the air, where he
stood among the acorns, big, furry ears high and wide, nose working
nervously.

"He's only a yearling,