The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-12-07
The aIling Leaf.

foliage, SO brightly green, and which
through all the heats of summer has
swayed in che winds and offered to
the weary a grateful shade, relieved
here and there by threads of sun.
light, is changing to sombre hues,
or to the gorgeousness of robe in
which Nature sometimes arrays her.
self for deaths frosty approaches.
One by one the faded leaves drop
silently to the earth, until the woods
are bare and the naked trees stand
out as if in stern defiance of coming
wintry tempests. There is an air of
solemnity stealing over Natures
face, and something of a sigh in the
music that floats on the autumn
breeze. Yet we can not say, with
Bryant
"The melancholy days are come,
The saddest of the year,
for to US this ia, of all seasons, the
most delightful. If indeed, there
were never again to be a spring.
time-if the beauty of earth were
fading away forever-there would
be a bitter mockery in the gorgeous.
ness of the forests autumn decora.
tions-a hideousness in the varie-
gated beauties that charm us into
forgetfalness of death-and we.
might well take up Hoods hopeless
vail:
THE years in the wane;
There is nothing adjoining;
The night has no eve,
And the day has no morning:
Cold winter gives warning"
But We know that the springtime
will return. We rest on the veracity
Of the Interchangeable Jehovah, as
attested by all the records Of the
past, unstained by a single false |
hood or mistake, and we say with |
supreme confidence, 81 know that |
the springtime will return.n Then |
it is not death, but Natures sleep, |
that we contemplate. And why |
should she not sleep peacefully and |
recruit her wasted energiesf Her |
work, for the present, is done. The |
fields have yielded up their golden |
harvests. Why should there be |
sadness at beholding a perfected |
work, or why should we begrudge |
to the busy forces that have been |
ceaselessly operating through all the |
spring and summer months, the rest |
and Incorporation that is needed to |
prepare for another springtime and |
another glorious harvest season FL
Let as talk of sadness and melan.
choly when frost blights the spring |
buds, or summer drouths consume
the growing crops and fruits; for
that is untimely and desolating.-I
But there is no desolation in the
aiding and falling leaves of autumn.
It is the season of fruitage, when
he fields and the forests laugh with
abundance, and the heart of man is
filled with food and gladness.n
And why should the autumn of
life be sad and melancholyi Only
it is fruitless. Shall We
lgain take up Hoods melancholy
train, and say: |
The rivers run chill;
The red sun is sinking;
and I am growing old,
And life il fast shrinking;
Here's enough for sad thinking" l.
Yes, "enough for sad thinking"
a q barren life, upon which Spring
md Summer have lavished their
ructifyingpowers in vain, and which
n the harvest yields 'snoting but
Enough forsad thinkingn
or the faithless and the ungodly,
rho are unable to look beyond an.
umn's decay and winters desolation
o new and blessed Spring. But
nough for glad thinking to him
those old age is rich in the fruits of
righteousness. There is q sense of