The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-10-20
TIE PRESS.
[For the PREss.l
October Days.
BY ADAM NEwDEGIN.

is no more delightful Summer resort than
Casco Bay. This is evidenced by the
crowds that fill the Island boats in S miner,
and by the increasing number of cottages
and tents that nestle in so many pleasant
hooks at every landing. 1t is gratifying to
find that we are growing wiser as the city
grows older; that instead of the few and
scanty holidays which the preceding gener-
alton took, We are learning to make an mex
pensive holiday of the whole Summer, Civ
Ing our child en- months of what we can re-
call as single days of delightful excursions
In our own childhood, and laying in withal
a stock of health and vigor to carry them
through the trying school work of the next
nine months. The islands never lacked APP
probation. Codman's picture of Diamond
Cove in the public library shows what they
thought of it fifty years ago And the ia
miiar initials of their grandfatheIs which
the children find cut in the old beeches,
some of them dating back to those days,
and still not entirely overgrown into indis
tinctness, tell of golden Summer days and
pleasant sailing parties when the Laurel
and the Banner were the crack yachts of the
feet. But they had not then learned to hus
band all the resources of pleasure, and to
live out of doors at that season when Nature
is lovelier here than in all the world beside.
Still we have hot learned all the lesson.
When the Midsummer is gone and the days
begin to shorten, the cottagers fit back to
fnwp md Spnfamhpr uroatc onlu tho m, 10
devoted admirers Of the sea, while October
finds only here and there a lingerer. Yet
October his charms which all the other
months lack. The hunters moon. lingering
long, throws mellow light across the waves
and far away in the bright, sparkling path
of the moon-glade, are fairy crafts, with Sill
very spars, riding at anchor, while every
now and then sh lining sail slips out of the
shadows into the glowing road, glitters for
an instant, and then sails away into the
shadows beyond.
1t is not Indian Summer yet. That hal
cyon time comes about All Saints day, at
the end of the month, when the frosts have
ripened all the leaves and they begin to fall
in showers. And sometimes it does not
come at all. But October has many charm
ing days which seem almost like it. Days
lost of the Summer, but found again now,
warm and radiant, and mellow with the yell
low light of hazy sunshine. The flowers have
all gone but the delicate little pink herb rob-
ert, the blue lobeia, the primrose, and a
few belated golden rod and clover blossoms.
Yet the sweet briar is glowing with crimson
berries, the sweet fern has changed to rich
purple and the juniper bushes to bronze
green which make the hillsides rich in color
where the sun is shining. The beeches are
clothed all in gold, the oaks are reddening,
while the map es are ablaze in crimson.
Miles away towards Blackstrap hill we can
see the glowing naples hung out like ban
ners on the forest walls. On the southeast
side of Little Diamond Island, where the
rocky bluffs have such brilliant hues OF their
own, the browning shrubbery with its brigh,
strong coloring makes an exquisite picture
under the morning sun as the little steamer
gides up the roadstead
The evergreens now put on richer green,
as if saying, like the wild ducks which come
scudding up the bay, our time is coming.
Casco Bay is favored spot in regard to
weather. Many storm which we hear
reported to the W. stward goes sailing
by outside Cape Cod, leaving us be-
Gained. And while the telegraph re-
ports snow in the Provinces and in the
Northw stern States, the grass is still green
with us and we can sit out of doors from
morning until late in the day, sketching,
reading and writing. At the islands the
sun dries the grass quickly in the morning
and the children can play out Of doors hours
before the sidewalks have dried in the city.
These dreamy, hazy, sunny days are the
time for forest walks. The sun running low,
slants through the long, open glades and
lights up all the fer s, moss and
partridge berries, which you are gathering,
and the great hemlocks look solemn and
dark amid The shining beeches. Then comes
the enthusiastic young woman from town
and at every fresh opening in the woods
chants:
"1his is the forest primeval.
LIE Wis cflnR pines and The nenlOckS
Stand like the Druids of ed
Green lndistinct in the twilight,
Saying in tremulous voices
why don't you speak for yourself John?''
and when you come to the tower-like
branches elm, with the great eagles nest
In the top, there is universal scream of de-
light from those of the party who express
their admiration in that manner.
If it is Sunday afternoon you will see
the smoke of many fires at Diamond, Pleas
ant and Indian Coves, and find little parties
from the city who have sailed or rowed
down, and are cooking their dinners at rude
hreplaces constructed of heaped-up rocks.
1t is, perhaps, not devout way of spending
the Sabbath within sound of the mellow
chime of the church-going bells, floating
softly down from the city ON the westerly
breeze, but the fragrance of the resinous
woods, and the pattering of acorns along the
sunny woodgades plead their excuses in ell
oquent tones.
Great Diamond Island, although it can be
rowed around in less than two hours, has
an infinite variety of beautiful views, and
VIC Aooe WCliu dliu pldC6S III
Its interior. Early in this Summer party of
two men and two boys who tried to cross
through it after shutdown got lost and were
obliged 20 build fire and sleep out all night
to save plunging over some precipice in the
dark. We scoffed at the idea until we tried
it by daylight, and then found such a will
derness of swamp, fallen trees, precipitous
bluffs and tangled thickets that we were
converted at once. 1t seems as if you had
left civilization hundred miles behind, and
yet half a mile to the northward are the
loveliest woodpaths ever dreamed Of One
stormy night in August, before I had
explored these swamps, stranger who
landed at Echo Grove, asked the
road to Pleasant Cove. 1 knew that
some Boston school-marms were tent
ing there at what they called Camp Crow, and
that there was road over on the northern
side. poi ted out the general direction
a. d saw the dripping man disappear IT, the
distance. Slice seei 6 the dismal swamp
H. the inferior 7 dread tn come across tbot