The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1897-10-06

~
unshackled by the fantastic trfckings
learned to love her moods of gentle
ness, and to feel in the deep commun-
ines with her low, soft voice, that she
has lessons-aye and pleasures, which
the careless and the cold may never
know What world of subtle, and
anon of mighty changes are compris-
ed in the circle of few brief weeks
At first, the exuberant foliage of sum-
mer wakes fainter and less 1uxuriant
the dark green of balIny June is
supplanted by paler and sickler
hue, from the simple exhaustion of
the energy which called it into being.
Later, the leaves assume thousand
fanciful colors, more varied than
those of the rainbow, and the specta
Gle presented is more gorgeous and
magnificent than the widest dream of
eastern romance. But brief and un-
certain is the duration of all earthly
splendor. The biting frosts and chill
ing breezes of November soon wfthel
unfortunately the pale, the liyid
and the gaudy; and the spoils of a
continent are trodden to the ca. tn or
scattered to the winds of heaven III
promiscuous and undistingaished
ruin.
And yet there is one scene connect
ed with my forest "reminiscences
which has come down through years
unfaded upon the tablets of memory,
while many a fond and treasured
recollection has crumbled beneath the
iron hand of time. 1t is of that deep,
solemn rustic which accompanies the
fall of the leaf in the depths of ma
lures else unbroken solitude. When
the first bitter frosts. of October. are
succeeded by the bright sunshine of a
still, yet bracing morning, it We're a
study for poet to wander forth into
the deep recesses of natures lonely
temples, and to stem to the sound. OF
the thousands on thousands of with
cred leaves returning to the earth
from which they sprung, each of it
self noiselessly, yet together forming
a subdued, unbroken harmony, which
may well attune the mind to pensiye
and to melancholy contemplation.
No monitor can more clearly, perhaps
more forcibly, reiterate the great les
son of mortality -the impressive warm
ing, 'Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Then there is anotherfeatuBeof the
mighty revolution of naturetF the
change from redundancy of apPaT5
cling to utter nakedness-which
should not pass entirely unobserved.
The disrobing of the great body the
forest, leaving the skeleton of the
goodly array, which was so lately
presented, brings profoundly to view
the unchanging eyergreens with
which it was more or less thickly stud
ded The tall pine bows deeper and
signs more audibly in echo to the
meanings of the passing breezei the
sturdy hemIock assumes a brighter
green in the light of the rudy sunset,
and the dark fir waves fitfully to the
bowling blast which sweeps through
its now unsheltered branches. The
number of these unbending stoics of
the forest seems to have increased al
most infinitely. and the beholder is
tempted to doubt that this can be the
scene on which he has so often gazed
in the freshness and the beauty of
summer, when scarcely one of these
somber giants could be seen towering
above he majestic sea of verdure
with which they were encompassed.
Yet not all dark is the aspect of I'M
suIIied nature, even at this gloomy
crisis. The glad sun looks cheerily, if
not warmly. down into many sweet
alcove that his midsummer rays could
never penetrate. and the spirit of life
still animates the most.secluded recess
SEES of her bonndless domain, proclaim
ing that no spot ilIumined by the
smile of God can be utterly alone and
desoIate. Merry is the note of the
ever-active squirrel, as he leaps from