Page:The clerk of the woods.djvu/139

Rh only the poor who know what money is worth. It is only in October and November that we feel all the charm of Aster lœvis [sic]. I think of Bridget Elia's lament over the "good old times" when she and her cousin were "not quite so rich." Then the spending of a few shillings had a zest about it. A purchase was an event, a kind of festival. I believe in Bridget's philosophy; for the asters teach the same; yes, and the goldenrods also. They, too, have come up in the wake of the scythe, and still dwarfed, having no time to attain their natural growth, as if they knew that winter was upon them, are already topped with yellow. I carry home a scanty half handful of the two, asters and goldenrods, as treasure-trove. They are sure to be welcome. When all the fields were bright with such things, they seemed hardly worth house-room. This late harvest of blossoms is one small compensation for all the ugliness inflicted upon the landscape by the habit—inveterate with highway "commissioners"—of mowing back-country roadsides. As if stubble were prettier than a hedge!

Now I pass two long-armed white oaks,