The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-01
By ERNEST HAROLD BAYNEs.

week there came a day such as
is seen nowhere In the world save
A America, and never even there
Hk$<,i save in October. 1t was a day
- which cannot be fully described in
words-a day full Of glorious sunlight. of
lffe-giving air, and the odor of nuts. with
Just a tinge Of sadness impaired by the
songs of bluebirds, which. seemingly frag-
ments of the vault above them, were tossed
TO the southwark Of the autumn wind. There
was much work for my pen that day. and
all the morning I wrestled with it-with my
elbows on my desk and my eyes looking
through the window and beyond, TO a little
lake. where white-tipped waveIets leaped
upon the surface of the dark blue water. In
the afternoon I started to work" at my
desk. but 1t was no use. so I tossed the pen
into q plgeon-hOle and went into the woods.
And such woods they were in their autumn
coloring, which car be matched nowhere,
perhaps. but in the rainbow in the northern
lights, in blood and in fire. And in the fields
around about the color scheme was carried
out in the foliage OF the sumachs, in the
scarlet hips Of the wild rose bushes, and in
the berries Of the bittersweet and the bushes
in the hedgerows.
In a glade in the woods, I saw a gray
squirrel eating a nut. sitting meanwhile on
a carpet Of fallen leaves-a carpet in gorge
Gus contrast TO his own sober dress He was
not afraid, for we had often met before, so
i sat down. too. and watched him rip away
the hard she'll by using his long front teeth
as levers. When he had finished, he looked
about until he found another, and when he
had eaten that. he began to gather grass
and leaves which he carried IN an aImost
completed nest In an oak tree near by. Thus
occupied L left him. and walked through the
wood until 1 saw between the trees the blue
waters of the lake. Far away, a mile per-
haps, was a rock projecting from the water,
and IL was dazzling white with the plumage
of sea gulls which covered it. Other gulls
were upon the wing. wheeling gracefully in
lazy circles far above their brethren, and
others still hoated lightly or the surface of
the lake, bobbing up and down amongst the
white caps from which at times it was i'm
possible to distinguish them. These things
1 could see with my naked eyes. but with
my field glass 1 could see something more.
Out from the end Of a point of land were
some little black dots, which might have
been stones in the water but for the fact
that stones would not move about as these
dots did. They were black ducks, which had
dropped into the lake the night before to re-
main for a time ere they continued their
journey to the southwark. I made a wide
detour. keeping well under cover, as /
wished TO see these birds at closer range.
Following a belt of woodland which skirted
the shore OF the lake, / came within a quar-
ter Of a mile OF the ducks without being
seen. There were far more Of them than
had supposed. between three and four hun
dred. as near as I could count, but only a
few were In the water. The rest were on the
shore. sitting about In different attitudes,
preening their plumage or dabbling in the
mud and among the stones. But some OF