Chipmunks are
carrying acorns to their granaries; they dash into their holes with a
squeak as if in derision at your slow-footed manner of walking.
* * * * *
Sumac flames from the fence corners and lights up the country lanes.
It is the first of the shrubs to announce in fiery placards the coming
spectacle of the passing of the summer. Next is the Virginia
creeper,--see where it flames up the wild cherry tree, scattering
crimson leaves to the grass beneath. Once in a day's journey along the
creek one may find a small red maple. In the middle of its foliage is
a small, flame-like spot which grows larger day by day. Gradually some
of the other maples catch the color fire, first a little soft maple by
the shore of a muddy bayou, next a small sugar maple on the rocky
slope. The great spectacle does not come until October, but the
placards announcing it grow more numerous and vivid day by day.
Blackberry leaves are splashed with crimson; daily the blood-red
banner of the sumac grows larger and more striking. Walnuts and
hickories begin to lose their yellow leaves; patches of yellow appear
on the elms and the lindens; though the mass of the foliage remains
until October, many leaves flutter down daily, and it is possible to
see twice as far into the thicket as in June.
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