Page:The first and last journeys of Thoreau - lately discovered among his unpublished journals and manuscripts.djvu/182

 THE THREADBARE TREES

These changes we already beheld with prophetic vision, for summer passes into autumn in some unimaginable epoch and point of time, like the turning of a leaf. It is pleasant to hear once more the crackling flight of grasshoppers amid the stubble. It is pleasant when summer is drawing to a close to hear the cricket piping a Niebelungenlied in the grass.

The feathered race are, perhaps, the truest heralds of the season, since they appreciate a thousand delicate changes in the atmosphere [130]