When autumn has reached the zenith of perfection, when the milkweeds and thistles which grow thick in the hedges have cast their gossamer, fairy-like seeds to the winds, and the goldenrod which flaunted its yellow banners so brightly through those last long, perfect days of dying autumn, has at last begun to fade, the first warning which we have of the approach of the frost is all at once seen in certain mysterious changes of colour which have taken place in the foliage of the trees. Then we know that upon that last still night, when the stars snapped and sparkled so brilliantly, and the air felt unusually keen and crisp, that the Hoar-frost Spirit must have been abroad, and in passing, touched all the trees and plants very lightly with his magic wand. Out in the garden the sturdy sunflowers droop their seed-filled crowns a trifle, while the hollyhocks seem to stand less primly and firmly, and lean together as though for support. They have felt the blighting touch of that magic wand. He touched also the tips of the maple leaves upon the hillside, and left upon some of them just a little dab of his crimson brushwork; they form a touch of brilliant colour against the darkly massed pines and hemlocks in the background. But shortly they will flame forth upon every hillside, one vast torch, lighted to do honour to the passing of autumn; and all the work of the Frost Spirit. [Illustration: 30. An odd hoar-frost formation] [Illustration: 31. Detailed tabular hoar frost—grew slowly] [Illustration: 32. Detailed tabular hoar-frost crystals] [Illustration: 33. Cup form hoar frost] The little sour fox-grapes which grow in the hedge-rows, are now piquant in flavour, and have acquired something which they lacked before, and are pleasant to the taste since the hoar frost’s visit to them. The bitter-sweet berries which grow close beside them, tangled and twisted with the gray, fluffed-out clematis plumes, have burst their orange-coloured sheaths, and gleam more vividly than before. And the great green chestnut burs are bursting, just a trifle; they need one more, slightly sharper touch from the hoar frost, and then the plump, brown, satin-skinned nuts will come tumbling out of their burs to the ground. The eager squirrels have already begun to collect their winter supplies. They are early at work, even before the magical display created by the hoar frost has been touched by the sun. They mean to get ahead of the children in their nut gathering, if possible. If you too, would rise with the squirrels, and go forth into the open fields and woods, you will be amply repaid for the small effort which it cost you, for the display which the delicate hoar frost makes upon a clear morning in early autumn, when first touched by the sunrise, is really fantastic and wonderfully beautiful.