The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-10-01
AN AUTUMN WALK.

Up here in New Hampshire the au- tumn sets in early, and by the last of September there are a hundred re-
 minders of the coming winter, and the
 people take the hints and busy thern-
 selves in reshingling their houses, repairing their barns, and in laying in little mountains of wood to keep the
 house habitable during the. long and
 often bitter winter. Bits of bright colored autumn foliage are seen even in August, and the goidenrod is
 practically thing of the past some
 time before it has reached it's best, say
 in New York.
 Yesterday I went out for a walk. It
 was a typical autumn morning
 bright and frosty, with wet grass and
 an odor of ripe apples in the air.
 As I struck out through the fields, the
 work of the frost was visible every where. Most of the ferns were black
 and shrivelled, much Of the grass was
 brown, and the wild flowers for the
 most part had gone to seed Where in August there had been seas Of glorious goIdenrod, the fields were gray with the seedy tops; goldfinches were scat tering clouds of thistle silk, but round
 about, the forests burned with the au- tumn hues,
 Soon I came to brook running through meadow, and I walked along it's bank towards the hills in which 1t rises. The water was so clear that even in the deepest parts one might distinguish the separate grains of sand upon the bottom. In some places there were tiny waterfalls, down which the water splashes seemingly with more than the necessary amount of noise: in
 others there were beds of shining and
 bright -colored pebbles where the water was churned to milky whiteness, to be- come clear again minute later, as 1t poured silently into some deep sum- | lighted pool, where speckled trout could be seen darting from bank to
 bank, or lying among the pebbles at the bottom with their fins slowly fam ming the water. As neared one of
 these pools, great blue heron rose slowly into the air and winged his way | towards the forest. It was not difficult
 to guess what he had been after. even | if I had not seen a little shoal of per- l haps thirty trout swimming across the
 sun-lighted bed of the stream. Most of these trout were small, only three | or four over six inches in length, and | they seemed to have little fear of me- l They did not seem to mind me as | moved quietly about, though they
 seemed somewhat nervous if I made a particularly violent movement. If,
 however, I allowed the shadow of my
 hand or arm to fall upon them, they
 darted away like speckled lightning,
 and did not return for minutes.
 In places along the banks blue gen. | tian was growing and here and there
 an aster was reflected on the stream.
 Now and then in some sheltered spot.
 a spray of goldenrod was to be seen, and pearly everlasting still held It's own in the fields round about.
 ! Still following the brook, presently
 entered the forest, and here could be l heard the faint sound of a cascade far up among the hills. The ground be- came much rougher, and 1t was 1le- l cessary to make my way around
 bouIders, and over fallen trees, in or- der to follow the windings of hebrook.
 Every now and then a ruffied grouse, and sometimes two or three of them in
 rapid succession, would start up before
 me without previous warning, and fly whirring away through the tree trunks these birds would probably be much
 more numerous than they are if it were not for the foxes which everywhere abound, and which are not only quick
 enough to catch grouse but crafty enough to outwit the old ones.
 When at length reached the water fall, I saw wonderfully beautiful sight. The brook at this point ran through the bottom of a little gorge,
 whose rocky sides were overhung with trees and wild creepers, all in gorgeous autumn colors, and at the end was the falling water. Twenty feet above me, | and through deep cleft in the stone, and brook leaped clear in 8 graceful
 arch to a pool at the bottom of the gorge, where the water boiled and
 seethed and finally fled away past my feet, chattering through the, pebbly rapids to quieter spots below. And in the sunlight which streamed down the gorge, stood a group of white II E