You ought to see the light of the October moon, as it falls through a
roof of leafless limbs in some silent piece of woods. You have seen
the woods by daylight; you have seen the moon from many places; but to
be in the middle of the moonlit woods after the silence of the October
frost has fallen is to have one of the most beautiful experiences
possible out of doors.
III
You ought to see a wooded hillside in the glorious colors of the
fall--the glowing hickories, the deep flaming oaks, the cool, dark
pines, the blazing gums and sumacs! Take some single, particular
woodland scene and look at it until you can see it in memory forever.
IV
You ought to see the spiders in their airships, sailing over the
autumn meadows. Take an Indian Summer day, lazy, hazy, sunny, and lie
down on your back in some small meadow where woods or old rail fences
hedge it around. Lie so that you do not face the sun. The sleepy air
is heavy with balm and barely moves. Soon shimmering, billowing,
through the light, a silky skein of cobweb will come floating over.
Look sharply, and you will see the little aëronaut swinging in his
basket at the bottom of the balloon, sailing, sailing--
Away in the air air--
Far are the shores of Anywhere,
Over the woods and the heather.
V
You ought to see (only _see_, mind you,) on one of these autumn
nights, when you have _not_ on your party clothes--you ought to see a
“wood pussy.” A wood pussy is not a house pussy; a wood pussy is a
wood pussy; that is to say, a wood pussy is a--_skunk_! Yes, you ought
to see a skunk walking calmly along a moonlit path and not caring a
fig for you. You will perhaps never meet a wild buffalo or a grizzly
bear or a jaguar in the woods nearest your house; but you may meet a
wild skunk there, and have the biggest adventure of your life. Yes,
you ought to see a skunk some night, just for the thrill of meeting a
wild creature that won’t get out of your way.
VI
You ought to see the witch-hazel bush in blossom late in November. It
is the only bush or tree in the woods that is in full bloom after the
first snow may have fallen. Many persons who live within a few
minutes’ walk of the woods where it grows have never seen it. But
then, many persons who live with the sky right over their heads, with
the dawn breaking right into their bedroom windows, have never seen
the sky or the dawn to think about them, and wonder at them! There are
many persons who have never seen anything at all that is worth
seeing. The witch-hazel bush, all yellow with its strange blossoms in
November, is worth seeing, worth taking a great deal of trouble to
see.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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